Supporting Health-Care Workers and Patients in Quarantine Wards: Evidence From a Survey of Frontline Health-Care Workers and Inpatients With COVID-19 in Wuhan, China

Abstract

Objective: Frontline health-care workers and patients with COVID-19 have been identified as high-risk groups for psychological problems. Experience of working or staying in quarantine wards generated psychological stressors for health-care workers and patients with COVID-19. The present study aimed to investigate the psychological symptoms of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 and the health-care workers treating them during the outbreak period, examine the effects of psychological stressors on mental health in both populations and perceived coping resources for both sides.Methods: Three hundred and eleven health-care workers working in a COVID-19 designated hospital in Wuhan, China, and 148 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in the same hospital participated in this cross-sectional survey conducted in February 2020. Psychological symptoms, psychological stressors, and perceived coping resources were reported by both groups.Results: Thirty-three percent of health-care workers and 35.2% of patients with COVID-19 had significant psychological symptoms that were indicative of a high risk for psychological disorders. Pandemic-related psychological stressors contributed to psychological symptoms for both populations. Concern about patients was one aspect of psychological stressors of frontline health-care workers and both groups perceived support from the opposite side as an important external coping resource.Conclusion: The results shed light on the need to provide psychological support to both frontline health-care workers and patients with COVID-19 and suggest enhancing the treatment alliance might be effective to improve mental health for both populations during the crisis.

Symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder and their relationship with the fear of COVID−19 and COVID−19 burden among health care workers after the full liberalization of COVID−19 prevention and control policy in China: a cross-sectional study

“…In addition, the study found that COVID-19 fear is associated with PTSD symptoms, which is consistent with previous literature [ 50 ]. This may be because health care workers facing COVID-19 infection develop COVID-19 fear, psychological distress, and severe concern about recovering their physical health [ 51 ].…”

PTSD and its relationship with the Fear of COVID-19 and COVID-19 burden among health care workers after the full liberalization of COVID-19 prevention and control policy in China: a cross-sectional study

“…In addition, the study found that COVID-19 fear was an essential factor in post-traumatic stress disorder among health care workers, which is consistent with previous literature [45]. This may be because health care workers facing COVID-19 infection develop COVID-19 fear, psychological distress, and severe concern about recovering their physical health [46].…”

Do COVID-19 CT features vary between patients from within and outside mainland China? Findings from a meta-analysis

“…The epidemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID- 19), originally occurred in Wuhan, Hubei, China, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread worldwide (1,2). As a public health emergency, COVID-19 is still an ongoing outbreak, and humans have been experiencing a relentless spread of variations of SARS-CoV-2 (3, 4), significantly undermining the domains of health, economy, environment, and society, unfortunately (5).…”

“…Given the fact that the transmission ability of COVID-19 is stronger and the incidence of mortality is relatively higher (6,7), rapid and accurate diagnostic methods show their great significance for the prevention, control, and management of COVID-19. Real-time fluorescence polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) remains the current gold standard for COVID-19 diagnosis (8); however, this diagnosis method has some shortcomings: (1) it is very time-consuming to obtain the results after sampling and may lead to experimental errors caused by manual handling (9, 10), (2) there are a high rate of falsenegative results (11), where there were even repeated negatives confirmed by other methods for patients when viral load is insufficient (12), (3) not all hospitals and clinics can implement these methods or the supply and quality of the reagents cannot keep up with the demand in time (13,14), (4) the severity, progression, and the evaluation of patients cannot be judged or traced (11,15,16). Compared to several limitations mentioned above, chest computerized tomography (CT), as a routine and powerful tool for diagnosing viral pneumonia, has the advantage of timeliness, celerity, and high stability and sensibility (17,18).…”