key: cord-291302-dgpfmx7o authors: Cao, Jinya; Wei, Jing; Zhu, Huadong; Duan, Yanping; Geng, Wenqi; Hong, Xia; Jiang, Jing; Zhao, Xiaohui; Zhu, Boheng title: A Study of Basic Needs and Psychological Wellbeing of Medical Workers in the Fever Clinic of a Tertiary General Hospital in Beijing during the COVID-19 Outbreak date: 2020-03-30 journal: Psychother Psychosom DOI: 10.1159/000507453 sha: doc_id: 291302 cord_uid: dgpfmx7o nan Dear Editor, The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become a global threat. A fever clinic for triaging patients is a primary strategy against COVID-19 [1] . On January 20, 2020, the novel coronavirus was put on highest alert throughout China. On the same day, a special 24-h fever clinic was set up in the Emergency Department, Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH). Doctors and nurses for this fever clinic were handpicked by the Emergency Department based on their experience and their adaptability and tenacity under pressure shown in their past works. Psychological support for these medical workers was deemed as essential [2] . Thus, a hotline service was set up by the Department of Psychological Medicine, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day, to talk with medical workers about their feelings, provide support and understanding, and help them find emotional resources. Furthermore, we continuously monitored these medical workers with qualitative and quantitative evaluations, regularly feeding back findings to the Emergency Department to allow for adjustments. The qualitative interview involved topics as shown below. Quantitative questionnaires (Table 1) included the Patient Health Questionaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Maslach Burn-out Inventory (MBI). PHQ-9 and MBI were administered at the end of their duty before a 2-week rest leave. Interviews were conducted whenever the medical workers were free, initiated either by us or them, during the 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. hotline service. Each medical worker was interviewed several times during their 2-to 3-week work time rotation. Each interview lasted 40-90 min. A total of 37 medical workers were selected as the first batch for the fever clinic. They all agreed to participate in our interviews and provided oral consent (response rate 100%). The participants comprised 16 doctors, 19 nurses, and 2 clinical technicians; 8 of the workers were male, and 17 were married. The overall mean age was 32.8 ± 9.6 years. Mean working experience was 6 years (range 2-20). ily members was the most frequently reported coping strategy. Talking with colleagues was also useful for most participants. Two participants reported that they would rather cope with stress on their own, but they welcomed talks with psychologists through hotline. Other coping strategies included sport, singing, writing diaries, watching videos, etc. 8. Bodily discomfort. Of the 37 participants, 6 doctors and 11 nurses reported mild bodily discomfort including tiredness, throat pain, cough, neck and shoulder pain, back pain, headache and nausea, frequent urination, and skin rash. No medical worker was infected with COVID-19. The above-described bodily discomforts may likely have psychosomatic origins. 9. PHQ-9 and MBI (see Table 1 ). The higher rate of "Personal Accomplishment" burnout may be related to the fact there is still no definitely effective medication against COVID-19. Consistent with other similar situations, medical workers in our study were under high stress [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] . However, overall, the emotional distress and burnout levels were not highly elevated. Our psychological support and adjustments may help buffer the negative impact of stress. In addition, we have to acknowledge that in such an emergency situation with a shortage of medical staff and resources, many doctors and nurses are overworking extensively. It is a new situation for medical workers [10] . We suggest monitoring the physical and psychological needs and wellbeing of medical workers in similar situations, and then adjusting their working schedules and formulating psychosocial interventions accordingly. Therapeutic and triage strategies for 2019 novel coronavirus disease in fever clinics Mental health care for medical staff in China during the COVID-19 outbreak National Health Commission of People's Republic of China Impact on health care workers employed in high-risk areas during the Toronto SARS outbreak Psychological impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome on health workers in a tertiary hospital Psychological effects of the SARS outbreak in Hong Kong on high-risk health care workers Factors associated with the psychological impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome on nurses and other hospital workers in Toronto. Psychosom Med The mental health of hospital workers dealing with severe acute respiratory syndrome Health workers' experiences of coping with the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone's health system: a qualitative study Different kinds of major incident require different mental health responses We would like to thank all the medical workers for agreeing to participate in our study and for their great work in the fever clinic. We would also like to thank Qing Chang from the Department of Medical Affairs, PUMCH, and Hong Kang from the Labor Union, PUMCH, for their help with logistics and organization. The trial protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee for Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (S-K1045). All participants gave their oral consent. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. J.C. and J.W. received funding support from PUMCH (pumch-2016-3.3 and ZC201902261, respectively). J.W. and H.Z. contributed equally to the conception of the study design and coordination. Data collection was carried out by Y.D., X.Z., W.G., and J.J. Data analysis and interpretation was done by J.C., W.G., Y.D., and H.X. J.C. and Y.D. wrote the first draft of the paper. J.W., H.Z., and B.Z. provided a critical revision of this draft. All authors gave their final approval of the version to be published.