“To Catch” or “to give”: fears among frontline professionals at COVID-19

Objective:  To investigate the relationship between the performance of tests to detect COVID-19 and signs of psychological distress, perceived stress and burnout among health professionals on the frontline of the pandemic in a general hospital.

Methods:  Prospective mixed-approach study using SRQ-20, PSS, OBI and in-depth interviews in a series of 3 interviews throughout 2020.

Results:  Worrying prevalences of high scores of SRQ20, Burnout and Perceived Stress occurred on the three interviews and the number of tests performed increased during the study period, but there was no association between outcomes and testing to detect COVID- 19. Fear of contracting the disease or being a transmitter of the virus appeared as the main stressors for health professionals, maintained despite testing.

Conclusions:  In this group, tests performed were not sufficient to modify the psychosocial effects of the front line activity on health professionals.

KEYWORDS
Burnout; COVID-19; emotional stress; health professionals; COVID-19 testing