Post-traumatic stress symptoms and professional quality of life among healthcare professionals working in COVID departments

INTRODUCTION: The COVID pandemic had a heavy impact on the mental health of people in general and healthcare professionals in particular. OBJECTIVES: Our study aimed to examine the the prevalence of post-traumatic stress symptoms among healthcare professionals working in COVID departments, and assess their professional quality of life. METHODS: Our sample consisted of 23 healthcare professionals who are working in the COVID departments of the Hospitals of Sfax. We collected their sociodemographic data, their medical history and COVID-related details. Their mental health was assessed by the Impact of Event scale (IES-R) and the professional quality of life scale (ProQOL-5) RESULTS: The sex ratio in our study was 17:6, with a mean age of 31.79 years. They carried out 5.43 nightshifts per month, 57 hours of work per week including 27.38 hours of direct contact with COVID positive patients. A rate of 21.74% of the patients had a high IES-R score, indicating severe post traumatic stress symptoms. As for the subscales of the professional quality of life score, 21.73% of the participants had a low compassion satisfaction score, 65.21% of the participants had a moderate one and 13% had a high one. A rate of 91.3% of the participants had a moderate burnout score, the mean was 29.39. The secondary traumatization score was low in 26% of the cases, moderate in 60.86%, high in 13% and the mean was 27.91. CONCLUSIONS: COVID healthcare professionals are at a relatively high risk of developing burnout and post-traumatic stress symptoms. DISCLOSURE: No significant relationships.