Occupational safety and health of health workers caring for patients during the Covid-19 pandemic: a literature review

Abstract

Objective:

to analyze the academic production on the occupational health of health workers serving patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods:

a literature review including articles from 2020 indexed in PubMed, Web of Science and Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde (Medline and Lilacs).

Results:

we analyzed 52 articles according to professional group studied, country were the research was conducted, type of study design and research theme. We emphasized and discussed the most updated and relevant knowledge, questions and issues from the point of view of Collective Health, and Worker’s Health. Over half of the papers were from China (55.7%) and studied different health professionals categories grouped (57.7%). The most frequent studies types were essays (46.1%) and cross-sectional studies (30.8%). The highlighted themes were the workers’ knowledge about the disease, Covid-19 cases among health workers, mental health, and occupational safety.

Conclusion:

the studies published at the beginning of the pandemic highlight lack of updated knowledge and failures in protecting workers’ health, and recommend the management of work processes, workplaces, COVID-19 cases, public policies and workers’ rights.

Keywords:
health workers; COVID-19; occupational health