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The prevalence of exposure to potentially morally injurious events among physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background: Given the profound psychological distress caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, healthcare workers are at high risk of being exposed to potentially morally injurious events (PMIEs). Objective: We aimed to explore the prevalence and associated factors with PMIEs in a sample of Romanian physici...

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Autores principales: Maftei, Alexandra, Holman, Andrei-Corneliu
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Taylor & Francis 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8075083/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33968327
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2021.1898791
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author Maftei, Alexandra
Holman, Andrei-Corneliu
author_facet Maftei, Alexandra
Holman, Andrei-Corneliu
author_sort Maftei, Alexandra
collection PubMed
description Background: Given the profound psychological distress caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, healthcare workers are at high risk of being exposed to potentially morally injurious events (PMIEs). Objective: We aimed to explore the prevalence and associated factors with PMIEs in a sample of Romanian physicians, of which almost half worked in Covid-19 treatment medical units. Method: We ran a web-based survey in April 2020, three weeks after the general lockdown to contain the novel coronavirus. Participants (N = 114, aged 23 to 67, M = 38.85, SD = 9.82, 74.6% females) answered the PMIE scale items, in addition to questions related to the physical and emotional self-impact related questions, and demographical and work-related variables (i.e. age, gender, medical experience, and speciality). Results: Results suggested that almost 50% of the participants reported high levels of PMIE exposure. No significant associations were found between PMIE exposure, and the type of medical unit physicians worked in (Covid-19 or non-Covid-19), nor their specialization and medical experience. Demographic variables (i.e. age and gender) and experience did not predict PMIE exposure. However, we found significant associations between PMIE and the physicians’ physical and emotional self-reported impact. Conclusions: Healthcare systems, governments, and societies worldwide need to recognize that physicians are prone to PMIE exposure and related adverse psychological outcomes due to their daily activity in containing the pandemic. Public policies need to actively offer and promote psychological support, to protect and help physicians from the adverse mental health outcomes following the pandemic.
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spelling pubmed-80750832021-05-06 The prevalence of exposure to potentially morally injurious events among physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic Maftei, Alexandra Holman, Andrei-Corneliu Eur J Psychotraumatol Short Communication Background: Given the profound psychological distress caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, healthcare workers are at high risk of being exposed to potentially morally injurious events (PMIEs). Objective: We aimed to explore the prevalence and associated factors with PMIEs in a sample of Romanian physicians, of which almost half worked in Covid-19 treatment medical units. Method: We ran a web-based survey in April 2020, three weeks after the general lockdown to contain the novel coronavirus. Participants (N = 114, aged 23 to 67, M = 38.85, SD = 9.82, 74.6% females) answered the PMIE scale items, in addition to questions related to the physical and emotional self-impact related questions, and demographical and work-related variables (i.e. age, gender, medical experience, and speciality). Results: Results suggested that almost 50% of the participants reported high levels of PMIE exposure. No significant associations were found between PMIE exposure, and the type of medical unit physicians worked in (Covid-19 or non-Covid-19), nor their specialization and medical experience. Demographic variables (i.e. age and gender) and experience did not predict PMIE exposure. However, we found significant associations between PMIE and the physicians’ physical and emotional self-reported impact. Conclusions: Healthcare systems, governments, and societies worldwide need to recognize that physicians are prone to PMIE exposure and related adverse psychological outcomes due to their daily activity in containing the pandemic. Public policies need to actively offer and promote psychological support, to protect and help physicians from the adverse mental health outcomes following the pandemic. Taylor & Francis 2021-04-16 /pmc/articles/PMC8075083/ /pubmed/33968327 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2021.1898791 Text en © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) ), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Short Communication
Maftei, Alexandra
Holman, Andrei-Corneliu
The prevalence of exposure to potentially morally injurious events among physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic
title The prevalence of exposure to potentially morally injurious events among physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full The prevalence of exposure to potentially morally injurious events among physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_fullStr The prevalence of exposure to potentially morally injurious events among physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full_unstemmed The prevalence of exposure to potentially morally injurious events among physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_short The prevalence of exposure to potentially morally injurious events among physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_sort prevalence of exposure to potentially morally injurious events among physicians during the covid-19 pandemic
topic Short Communication
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8075083/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33968327
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2021.1898791
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