THE EFFECT OF DEPRESSION LEVELS ON QUALITY OF LIFE OF INTENSIVE CARE STAFF DURING THE COVID-19 PROCESS

Abstract

This study was conducted to examine the effect of depressive symptoms on quality of life of healthcare staff working in intensive care units during the COVID-19 process. This study was designed as descriptive, cross-sectional and correlational. It was carried out with the participation of 133 healthcare professionals between November and December 2020. The data were collected by face-to-face interviews with the participants in average of 10-15 minutes. Personal Information Form, Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI), and Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL R-IV) were used for data collection. Kurtosis, Skewness and Shapiro-Wilk, Student's t, ANOVA tests were used for data analysis. Pearson correlation and regression analysis were performed. Depressive symptoms and low quality of life were detected in healthcare workers working in the Covid-19 pandemic. It was seen that women's ProQOL R-IV total scores were higher than men's and BDI total score averages of associate degree health workers were significantly higher than those of health workers with undergraduate or graduate degrees. It was determined that 39.1% of the participants were considering resigning during the pandemic process. It has been determined that those who do their job reluctantly have higher BDI total scores than those who do it fondly. In addition, it was determined that those who do their job fondly have higher ProQOL R-IV total scores than those who do it reluctantly. It was observed that the total BDI scores of the participants whose family members were diagnosed with COVID-19 were higher than those who did not and those who thought about resigning during the pandemic process were higher than those who did not. As a result, it is thought that the effective and high quality of health services is directly related to the physical and mental well-being of health workers throughout the pandemic process. It is thought that it is extremely important to identify mental disorders that may occur in healthcare workers due to the difficulties brought by the pandemic process at an early stage and to stop their progression.