At a preliminary stage of the Research, to the 550 participants (in the majority doctors, nurses and social health assistants, but also laboratory technicians and employees of the “Policlinico”) are asked if they have any pathologies and if they regularly take medications. Just over two hundred say yes. Among these, however, the responses of 56 health professionals are striking 10 percent of the total, who report taking and having taken anxiolytics, antidepressants, sedatives and sleeping pills (as well as vitamins), and who explain that they have started doing it after March 2020: as a kind of necessity, to try to soothe the psychological consequences of stress who poured into their work with fears, worries, grueling shifts and often helplessness in the face of the many patient deaths when the hospital was hit by the first wave of Covid.
I study (Hospital workers mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic) was published a few days ago in the scientific journal Medical research methodology and it doesn’t just tell the results of a search. Instead, it is the first account of a much larger work (this first phase ended between August and December 2020), in which the psychiatry and occupational medicine specialists of the hospital over the course of two years they will assess the psychological conditions of around 3,000 workers, in fact, almost the entire staff of the “Polyclinic”, from doctors to employees. This huge screening and care program was organized because health workers’ have experienced what they are comparable to a war in terms of psychological impact“. And therefore for very serious disorders, such as the “post traumatic stress disorder»(Typical pathology of soldiers who have fought),« active surveillance is essential for an early diagnosis ». After the first level of assessment, 39 percent of the doctors and nurses were tested above the threshold which indicates a generalized psychological stress and about «one fifth of the subjects show symptoms of post traumatic stress and manifestations of anxiety».
192 health workers at the “Polyclinic” (and it is probable that the situation is similar in all the other large hospitals) who have thus been subjected to a second level of detail, more specific. Among these, the prevalent symptoms were depression (12 per cent of the 550 workers who participated in this first phase of work), and dissociation (7 per cent of the total). Psychological distress is more common among women, nurses, young workers or more and longer engaged in Covid departments.
To understand the level of suffering endured by doctors and health personnel it is also necessary to consider that, only among these first 550 participants of the “Policlinico”, 60 became ill with Covid, 90 were in quarantine, 75 had an infected family member, 18 a hospitalized family member and 10 a deceased family member. And in fact the fear of bringing the virus home was one of the most critical elements in the psychological management of their work (78 percent of doctors and nurses support it), some have felt in some way “Discriminated against” outside the hospital (20 percent), many have had enough or a lot fear for their own health (43 percent), almost all of them significantly changed their family habits (69 percent). And then there are 68 doctors and nurses who said to having often thought about changing jobs (12 percent), while another 37 (7 percent) considered this possibility very seriously. And thus completes the portrait of this wounded “army”, to which the “Polyclinic” tries to give support with this program which, for those who have symptoms of more serious pathologies, will arrive at specialist support. However, all workers will make periodic assessments, at 6 and 12 month intervals, depending on their conditions.
If you want to stay updated on news from Milan and Lombardy, subscribe to the Corriere Milano newsletter for free. It arrives every Saturday in your mailbox at 7am. Enough click here.
August 18, 2021 | 07:15
© breaking latest news