Psychological wellbeing among nursing officers working at Coronavirus Treatment Centre, Kattankudy Base Hospital

Abstract

Sri Lanka has been dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020, with health care workers at the frontline of the fight. Their mental and emotional fortitude has been put to the test in an unprecedented way by the pandemic, and it has not been thoroughly examined. Consequently, it is critical to investigate the psychological well-being of nurse officers who work on the front lines. Thus, the objective of this study was to assess the psychological well-being among the nursing officers working at Coronavirus Treatment Centre (KBH) during the COVID19 pandemic in Sri Lanka. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 41 nursing officers working at KBH by deploying the complete enumeration method. The prevalence of anxiety was assessed based on the Zung’s Self- rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), while the prevalence of depression was assessed based on the Patient Health Questionnaire -9 (PHQ – 9). Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS software. The significance test was performed at 5% level significance. The results of the study revealed that 95.1% of the nursing officers had recorded a mild to moderate level of anxiety, and 4.9% of the nursing officers have recorded a moderate to severe level of anxiety. In terms of the depression, the test results revealed that 20% of the nursing officers have reported a none - minimal level of depression, 42.5% of the nursing officers have reported a mild level of depression, 35% of the nursing officers have reported a moderate level of depression, and 2.5% of the nursing officers have reported a moderately severe level of depression during the pandemic. According to the Chi-squared test of independence, permanent residential district, duration of employment and marital status were the demographic characteristics associated with the depression of the nursing officers working at KBH. Furthermore, taking care of an infected or suspected COVID – 19 patient, adhering to the infection control guidelines given in handling COVID – 19 patients, perceived adequacy of the available personal protective equipment, perceived rejection feeling got from the community exposure during the pandemic, the feeling that the respondent got when the respondent is rejected through community exposure during the pandemic and using WhatApp groups as a mode of communication during the pandemic were the risk factors associated with the depression of the nursing officers working at KBH during the pandemic.