Abstract

Background: The 2020 Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has been causing significant fear and anxiety among the general public and demonstrate insufficient preparedness of Healthcare systems. It shed light on front-line Healthcare-personnel who should function and treat others while they share the same stressful situations.

Objective: To provide actual real-time data on mood and mental symptoms of Healthcare personnel in quarantined wards during the Chinese-SARS epidemic, in order to support procedures for functioning of personnel during current and future epidemics.

Setting, Participants and Measurements: Cross-sectional Study was conducted during the acute exacerbation of the SARS epidemic at quarantined wards by nurses who were embedded and quarantined with the patients. Mood and perceptions of Healthcare-personnel infected (n = 55) and not infected (n = 149) with SARS, as well as those during quarantine “rehabilitation” (n = 62) were compared to SARS patients (n = 96), healthy quarantined students (n = 55) and healthy non-quarantined controls (n = 52).Structured interviews were conducted with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Spielberger’s State-Trait inventory, symptoms Checklist-90 (SCL-90) and a situation-specific questionnaire.

Results: Healthcare-personnel -- infected and not-infected, suffered as much mood, anxiety and other stress-induced symptoms as their SARS patients. Strictly enforced quarantine amplified personnel’s frustration, mental symptoms and mistrust in authorities.

Limitations: Data was collected when many patients were assisted by respirators, some could not be included.

Conclusion: During acute epidemics front-line Healthcare-Personnel are exposed to same and even more extreme situations as their patients. Their emotional state under tumultuous situations should be of concern.

Implications: Mental well-being procedures and enhancement of Mental resilience of Healthcare teams should be an integral component of their preparedness for future disasters.

Keywords: Healthcare Personnel; Corona Virus; SARS; Infectious Diseases; Mental Health; Preparedness; Well-Being

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Citation

Citation: Uriel Halbreich and Fanqiang Meng. “Mental Health of Healthcare Personnel during Quarantine for Infectious Epidemic--Real-time Data".Acta Scientific Neurology 3.5 (2020): 24-30.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Uriel Halbreich and Fanqiang Meng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.