Impacto psicológico y cambios en la práctica clínica en personal sanitario durante la pandemia COVID-19, Cuenca, 2021

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic had a great impact on people's health. A group affected psychologically were healthcare workers linked directly to patient care. Objective: to determine the psychological impact and changes in the clinical practice of healthcare workers in the José Carrasco Arteaga and Municipal de la Mujer y el Niño de Cuenca hospitals, due to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology: a cross-sectional analytical study was conducted with 90 doctors and nurses. The PHQ-9 tests were applied to determine depression, GAD-7 for anxiety, PSS-14 for stress and ISI for insomnia. To collect information on the changes suffered by the staff in their clinical practice, the authors developed a form. Statistical analysis was performed on SPSS v15; to establish association, OR with 95% CI and chi-square were used. Results: the prevalence of depression was 58.9% (p<0.001; OR 4.7 IC95% 1.9-11.9), anxiety 62.2% (p<0.01; OR 2.8 IC95% 1.1-6.7), stress 82.2%, and insomnia 54.4%, being associated with the medical profession. Insomnia was related to first-line activity (p=0.02; OR 8.2 CI95% 1.1-71.4). There were changes in clinical practice, thus, 51.1% showed physical distancing during care, 96.7% used personal protective equipment (PPE) and 85.6% required its use to patients. Conclusion: the psychological condition in health workers was high, it was associated with the medical profession and front-line work; the changes in clinical practice were distancing during care and use of PPE by professionals and patients.