Personnel Well-Being in the Helsinki University Hospital during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Prospective Cohort Study

Abstract

In March 2020, strict measures took place in Finland to limit the COVID-19 pandemic. Majority of Finnish COVID-19 patients have been located in southern Finland and consequently cared for at the Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa (HUS) Helsinki University Hospital. During the pandemic, HUS personnel’s psychological symptoms are followed via an electronic survey, which also delivers information on psychosocial support services. In June 2020, the baseline survey was sent to 25,494 HUS employees, 4804 (19%) of whom answered; altogether, 62.4% of the respondents were nursing staff and 8.9% were medical doctors. While the follow-up continues for a year and a half, this report shares the sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents and the first results of psychological symptoms from our baseline survey. Out of those who were directly involved in the pandemic patient care, 43.4% reported potentially traumatic COVID-19 pandemic-related events (PTEs) vs. 21.8% among the others (p < 0.001). While over a half of the personnel were asymptomatic, a group of respondents reported PTEs and concurrent depression, insomnia, and anxiety symptoms. This highlights the need to ensure appropriate psychosocial support services to all traumatized personnel; especially, nursing staff may require attention.

COVID-19 Pandemic and Helsinki University Hospital Personnel Psychological Well-Being: Six-Month Follow-Up Results

“…com/experience/92e9bb33fac744c9a084381fc35aa3c7 (accessed on 4 January year)). On an individual level, PTEs, other life events, resilience and coping strategies may mediate these changes [3,7].…”

“…During the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, a part of the health care and other hospital personnel is again severely challenged, while the pandemic-related workload is unevenly distributed. A prospective cohort study with over 4800 responders (19% of the HUS personnel) began in June 2020 and assessed HUS personnel psychological symptoms and well-being monthly via an electronic survey, which also provides information on psychosocial support services [ 3 ].…”

“…Front-line, but also other HUS personnel, were psychologically distressed as compared to the general Finnish population in June 2020 [ 3 ]. These effects appeared to be mediated via potentially traumatic COVID-19-related events (PTEs), as especially the front-line nursing staff was under pressure and psychologically distressed.…”

“…At the same time, tailored psychosocial support services have been actively offered to HUS personnel since June 2020 in addition to regular occupational health care services, to support the ability to work and function, which was also followed at a symptom level via this cohort study during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the hospital personnel, risk of exposure is an issue [ 3 , 4 ] and also a potential source of worry.…”

“…As the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic challenges hospital personnel again, a recent Cochrane review concludes that there is a lack of evidence on how to support front-line personnel during and after the pandemic and there is a lack of follow-up studies [ 8 , 9 ]. The aim of the present study is to follow the impact of the temporally changing COVID-19 pandemic situation on hospital personnel’s psychological well-being by assessing psychological distress, sleep, PTEs and posttraumatic symptoms [ 3 ].…”