key: cord-0822427-ejdqm13m
authors: Di Tella, Marialaura; Benfante, Agata; Castelli, Lorys; Romeo, Annunziata
title: Anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress in nurses during the COVID-19 outbreak
date: 2021-02-03
journal: Intensive Crit Care Nurs
DOI: 10.1016/j.iccn.2021.103014
sha: d48624cb80da79834c45fbbb7f41df4aaf9ccbc5
doc_id: 822427
cord_uid: ejdqm13m

nan

trauma-and stress-related symptoms that have been reported by nurses and physicians since the early months of pandemic (Benfante et al., 2020) .

The present study mainly aimed to assess the psychological impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on nurses and physicians working in XXX.

The responses of 73 nurses and 72 physicians were collected through an anonymized online survey. The current data were acquired as part of a larger project investigating the psychological impact of COVID-19 in XXX population. Participants were asked to indicate sociodemographic, clinical and work-related information, and to complete three self-report questionnaires to assess anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-Form Y1, STAI Y1), depressive (Beck Depression Inventory, BDI-II), and posttraumatic (PTSD Checklist for DSM-5, PCL-5) symptoms. The study was approved by the University of XXX ethics committee (Prot. n. 142069) and was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki; all the participants gave their informed consent.

In order to investigate the psychological impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on nurses and physicians, independent t-tests were performed to evaluate possible differences between those two groups on sociodemographic, clinical, and work-related variables, health-related questions, and psychological variables. Results of comparisons are presented in Table 1 . Significant differences between nurses and physicians were found on both Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) we used for the assessment of health-related aspects. Indeed, nurses rated lower their health and reported to be more worried about contracting COVID-19 with respect to physicians. Similarly, significant differences emerged between nurses and physicians on anxiety symptoms and PTSS, with the former reporting higher scores on the STAI Y1 and PCL-5, respectively.

These results are not surprising considering that nurses are usually one of the healthcare professional groups dealing with patients at the frontline across healthcare settings and for this reason they are continually exposed to stressful events. Particularly, during the COVID-19 pandemic, being more in contact with risky patients than physicians makes nurses more vulnerable and at risk to develop psychological distress. In line with our findings, previous studies showed that Despite this study being limited by its cross-sectional nature and its reduced sample, our results highlight that nurses experience higher levels of anxiety symptoms and PTSS, and are more worried about contracting COVID-19 compared to physicians. In conclusion, the present findings underline the importance of paying attention to the psychological health of this healthcare professional group. 

Traumatic stress in healthcare workers during COVID-19 pandemic: A review of the immediate impact

PTSD symptoms among health workers and public service providers during the COVID-19 outbreak

Covid-19: Supporting nurses' psychological and mental health

Prevalence of depression, anxiety, distress and insomnia and related factors in healthcare workers during COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey

Nurses' mental health during the Covid-19 outbreak: A cross-sectional study

The authors would like to thank the participants involved in the study.During the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses and physicians faced exhausting work conditions, making ethically and morally difficult decisions, and taking health risks to themselves and their loved ones (Maben and Bridges, 2020) . This situation also affected their mental health, with high levels of

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.