The Stress and Psychological Impact of the COVID-19 Outbreak on Medical Workers at the Fever Clinic of a Tertiary General Hospital in Beijing: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: The outbreak of COVID-19 puts major psychological pressure on medical workers exposed to patients. We examined COVID-19-related stress and its immediate psychological impact on medical staff, to provide evidence to help improve the management of stress among them. Methods: Stress management procedures to alleviate worries about the health of their own and families, to help adjustment of their work, and to give psychological support by hotline were carried out. Psychiatrists and psychological evaluators conducted telephone interviews with each medical worker at the fever clinic of a general hospital in Beijing from Feb 6 to Mar 28, 2020. Qualitative interviews, the Chinese versions of the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), and the Sources of Stress Questionnaire were administered. Findings: One hundred and two participants were enrolled. The median age of the participants was 30 (27, 36) years, 25 (24·5%) participants were males. Ninety-three of the participants (91·2%) had contact with COVID-19 patients or their specimen in the fever clinic. The total score on the IES-R was 3 (0, 8), six subjects (6·0%) screened positive for IES-R scores (≥20). The top four Sources of Distress were worry about the health of one’s family/others at 0·88 (0·25, 1·25), worry about the virus spread at 0·50 (0·00, 1·00), worry about changes in work at 0·50 (0·00, 1·00) and worry about one’s own health at 0·25 (0·25, 0·75). There was a moderate correlation between the IES-R score and the Sources of Distress score (r=0·501, P=0·000). Safety and security were acceptable or better for 92 (90·2%) participants, and the top four sources of security were sufficient protective devices (53 subjects, 52·0%), supervision of protection procedures (37 subjects, 36·3%), standardized protection processes (20 subjects, 19·6%) and training before rotation to the fever clinic (nine subjects, 8·8%). Interpretation: The stress levels of medical workers in the fever clinic during the COVID-19 epidemic were acceptably moderate. The stress levels were associated with their worries about health of their own and their family members, the spread of the virus and changes in their work. Management focus on their sources of stress to medical workers should be helpful and worth recommending in fighting with COVID-19.Funding Statement: This work was supported by Peking Union Medical College Hospital (grant number: ZC201903505 to XH, grant number: ZC201902261 to JW). XH was also supported by the 2019 teaching quality project, Peking Union Medical College (grant number: 2019zlgc0122). Declaration of Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.Ethics Approval Statement: The study was approved by the ethics committee of the hospital. Oral informed consent was obtained before the interview began.