Long‐term psycho‐traumatic consequences of the COVID‐19 health crisis among emergency department healthcare workers

Abstract

AbstractAssess the changes in post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), burnout, anxiety, depression, jobstrain, and isostrain levels over time among healthcare workers in emergency departments (EDs) after successive outbreaks of COVID‐19. A prospective, multicenter study was conducted in 3 EDs and an emergency medical service. Healthcare workers who participated in our previous study were invited to participate in a follow‐up 16 and 18 months and completed the questionnaires to assess symptoms of PTSD, burnout, anxiety, depression, jobstrain, and isostrain. Among the 485 healthcare workers asked to participate, 211 (43.5%) completed the survey at inclusion (122 were followed up at 3 months) and 59 participate to the follow‐up study. At 16 months, 10.9% of healthcare workers had symptoms of PTSD and 17.4% at 18 months. At inclusion, 33.5% and 11.7% of healthcare workers had symptoms of anxiety and depression, respectively. A decrease in anxiety between inclusion and 16 months (p = 0.02) and an increase between 16 and 18 months (p = 0.009) was observed. At inclusion, 40.8% of all healthcare workers had symptoms of burnout. There was an increase in symptoms of burnout between inclusion and 18 months (p = 0.006). At inclusion, 43.2% and 29.5% of healthcare workers were exposed to jobstrain and isostrain, respectively. Jobstrain were higher among paramedics and administrative staff compared to physicians (p = 0.001 and p = 0.026, respectively). Successive outbreaks of COVID‐19 led to long‐term mental health consequences among ED healthcare workers that differed according to occupation. This must be taken into account to rethink the management of teams.