COVID-19 psychological impact during the Italian lockdown: A study on healthcare professional

Abstract

COVID-19 has rapidly spread worldwide, with more than 136 million people infected. In this scenario, healthcare workers are among the professionals most at risk to experience burnout and other psychological symptoms. One-hundred-twenty healthcare professionals completed a survey, designed to measure different aspects of participants’ working conditions and psychological response to the pandemic. Participants’ burnout was positively and significantly predicted by work stress, workload and exposure to patients exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms and negatively predicted by organizational support, work engagement and by the adoption of adequate coping strategies. Furthermore, our findings revealed that the higher work stress, the more psychological symptoms were experienced by participants. In conclusion, these findings highlight the importance of considering work-related conditions and individual psychological variables to promptly support healthcare personnel during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Keywords:

• Healthcare professionals
• work stress
• health
• well-being
• COVID-19 pandemic

Data availability statement

A copy of the questionnaire will be available upon request.

Notes

1 We used Italian cut-off of MBI subscales for health professionals (Sirigatti & Stefanile, 1993).

2 The results of the regressions did not differ when risk perception was considered only in relation to the participants’ perceived chances of contracting the disease for themselves.