Preventing mental health disorders in healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic

Objective: based on a comprehensive assessment of the levels of anxiety and burnout syndrome among medical workers of COVID hospitals, develop measures to prevent mental health disorders. Materials and methods: examined: group 1 — medical workers of COVID hospitals (n=201); group 2 — medical workers of multidisciplinary hospitals (n=195); group 3 — medical workers of the outpatient clinic link (n=186). Control group (n=190) — employees of engineering, technical and economic specialties (healthy). Methods: psychological (“integrative anxiety test”, authors: A.P. Bizyuk, L.I. Wasserman, B.V. Iovlev (2005); method for diagnosing professional burnout according to V.V. Boyko). During statistical processing, the significance of differences was determined using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by intergroup comparisons according to Dunnet’s test. The obtained data were processed using the statistical package “Statistica” from StatSoft (USA). Results: in the study of the phases of emotional burnout, it was revealed that medical workers in COVID hospitals had significantly higher scores of the phase of stress, phases of resistance compared to medical workers in multidisciplinary hospitals and outpatient services. At the same time, the total score of the exhaustion phase was significantly increased in medical workers in COVID hospitals compared to medical workers in multidisciplinary hospitals, but there were no significant differences in this indicator when compared with medical workers in outpatient services. It has been established that among medical workers of COVID hospitals, the indicator “alarming assessment of prospects” prevails; in medical workers of multidisciplinary hospitals — “asthenic component”; among medical workers of the outpatient clinic link — a «phobic component». Conclusions: among medical workers of COVID hospitals, there is a high level of formation of phases of emotional burnout and anxiety. Measures to prevent mental health disorders of medical workers in COVID hospitals include: socio-psychological, professional and organizational.