Psychological effects of the COVID‐19 pandemic: Perceived stress, anxiety, work–family imbalance, and coping strategies among healthcare professionals in Khartoum state hospitals, Sudan, 2021

BACKGROUND: The 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID‐19) is highly contagious and can spread a pandemic, so it is related to serious health issues and major public concerns, and is considered by the medical community to be the greatest concern because it is the greatest risk of infection. OBJECTIVE: To identify and assess the psychological effects of the COVID‐19 pandemic on healthcare professionals in Khartoum state hospitals 2021. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Generalized Anxiety Scale (GAD‐7), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS‐10), and Work–Family Balance Measure Scale were used to assess the psychological impact of doctors and nurses working in four big hospitals in Sudan, by an online questionnaire, analyzed by the statistical package for social science (SPSS) during February. RESULTS: Most of the participants had minimal to mild anxiety according to GAD‐7 score, 121 (35.2%) and 103 (29.9%), respectively. Using PSS‐10, the cutoff point was determined as 19 as the mean for total score was 19.2 ± 6.2, accordingly, more than half had high levels of stress (scored 19 and above) 189 (54.9%). For the Work–Family Balance Scale, 10 was regarded as the cutoff point. There was a significant association between specialty and stress level p‐value .032. No significant correlations were found between age and stress level, neither between age and anxiety level (r −.100, p‐value .064 and r = −.022, p‐value .683, respectively). CONCLUSION: More than half of healthcare professionals (54.9%) showed high levels of stress. Most of the healthcare professionals had poor work–family balance (60.2%).