Mitigating the Psychological Impact of COVID-19 on Healthcare Workers: A Digital Learning Package

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) will undoubtedly have psychological impacts for healthcare workers, which could be sustained; frontline workers will be particularly at risk. Actions are needed to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on mental health by protecting and promoting the psychological wellbeing of healthcare workers during and after the outbreak. We developed and evaluated a digital learning package using Agile methodology within the first three weeks of UK outbreak. This e-package includes evidence-based guidance, support and signposting relating to psychological wellbeing for all UK healthcare employees. A three-step rapid development process included public involvement activities (PPIs) (STEP 1), content and technical development with iterative peer review (STEP 2), and delivery and evaluation (STEP 3). The package outlines the actions that team leaders can take to provide psychologically safe spaces for staff, together with guidance on communication and reducing social stigma, peer and family support, signposting others through psychological first aid (PFA), self-care strategies (e.g., rest, work breaks, sleep, shift work, fatigue, healthy lifestyle behaviours), and managing emotions (e.g., moral injury, coping, guilt, grief, fear, anxiety, depression, preventing burnout and psychological trauma). The e-package includes advice from experts in mental wellbeing as well as those with direct pandemic experiences from the frontline, as well as signposting to public mental health guidance. Rapid delivery in STEP 3 was achieved via direct emails through professional networks and social media. Evaluation included assessment of fidelity and implementation qualities. Essential content was identified through PPIs (n = 97) and peer review (n = 10) in STEPS 1 and 2. The most important messages to convey were deemed to be normalisation of psychological responses during a crisis, and encouragement of self-care and help-seeking behaviour. Within 7 days of completion, the package had been accessed 17,633 times, and healthcare providers had confirmed immediate adoption within their health and wellbeing provisions. Evaluation (STEP 3, n = 55) indicated high user satisfaction with content, usability and utility. Assessment of implementation qualities indicated that the package was perceived to be usable, practical, low cost and low burden. Our digital support package on 'psychological wellbeing for healthcare workers' is free to use, has been positively evaluated and was highly accessed within one week of release. It is available here: Supplementary Materials. This package was deemed to be appropriate, meaningful and useful for the needs of UK healthcare workers. We recommend provision of this e-package to healthcare workers alongside wider strategies to support their psychological wellbeing during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 Pandemic and the Mental Health of Health Care Workers: Awareness to Action

“…Utilization of technology infrastructure to create accessible and flexible service delivery, and a plethora of strategies need to be utilized to provide the greatest benefit to the largest possible numbers. 35 The focus should be on mental health promotion and prevention as well as early identification and management of these mental health issues.…”

The Severity of Traumatic Stress Associated with COVID-19 Pandemic, Perception of Support, Sense of Security, and Sense of Meaning in Life among Nurses: Research Protocol and Preliminary Results from Poland

“…Unfortunately, HCWs often neglect social relationships with friends or family due to heavy workloads or concerns about the risk of exposing others to disease as they come into contact with people with COVID-19. On the other hand, maintaining social contacts becomes a challenge due to the need to maintain social distance [ 18 ]. According to the results of studies from China, in the face of both the SARS epidemic in 2003 and the current COVID-19, residents of Hong Kong (2003) and Liaoning Province (2020) reported increased social and family support during the epidemic compared to the pre-epidemic period.…”

“…Moreover, the HCW worker is also at risk of infection, death of co-workers or stigmatization and social exclusion due to work with infected patients [ 16 , 17 ]. There are also moral dilemmas related to making decisions regarding the provision of care with limited health care resources [ 18 ].…”

“…We lead an investigation concerning the level of posttraumatic stress, perceived social support, opinions on the positive and negative consequences of the epidemic, the sense of security, and the sense of meaning in life among nurses in a face of new and not fully understood epidemiological phenomena of a global nature. A literature search revealed that published evidence [ 2 , 8 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 14 , 16 , 18 ] has focused on determining the level of stress in HCWs in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there has been little research on perceived support, opinions on the positive and negative consequences of the epidemic, sense of security, and sense of meaning in life in the context of the pandemic COVID-19.…”

An integer programming model to assign patients based on mental health impact for tele-psychotherapy intervention during the Covid–19 emergency

“…Moreover, Zaka et al [69] highlighted the urgent need to implement mental health interventions to front-line medical staff working with Covid-19. Ordered and brief intervention with healthcare staff seems to be effective [7]. International efforts demonstrated the effectiveness of Tele-psychology response, requiring a well-organized system to effectively address the population's needs and prevent future psychological negative impacts [63,34].…”