Determinants for mental health repercussions of hospital health workers in the pandemic of COVID-19

ABSTRACT

This article aims to systematize, from scientific evidence, the conditioning and determining aspects for psychological distress of health professionals in the hospital, in view of the reorganization of the work process during the pandemic of COVID-19. This is an integrative literature synthesis review, of a qualitative nature, by searching scientific articles in the scientific databases Epistemonikos, ScienceDirect, PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science. The final corpus for analysis consisted of 31 studies. For the results, the multiple variables of higher risk, protective factors, conditioning, and determinants for psychological repercussions in hospital health professionals in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic were considered. On the other hand, the level of exposure, long working hours, fear of getting infected and infecting their families, of working in the front line of COVID-19, lack of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and stigma were the determining and conditioning factors for the psychological suffering of health professionals, directly related to, occupational burnout, burnout, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, insomnia, and depression. The systematization can cause reflections about the need for updating policy responses, through guidelines and competencies, to establish a process of continuous monitoring of the mental health of health professionals.

KEYWORDS
Health personnel; Mental health; Occupational stress; Hospitals; COVID-19