The evaluation of telehealth services during the covid-19 pandemic on levels of psychological growth

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic is considered a traumatic event. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of telehealth services offered at the Istanbul University, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine to health workers with presumed COVID-19 or close contact with a suspected/confirmed COVID-19 patient on pandemic management, vaccination, and psychological growth at one year after diagnosis.Material and Methods: The cohort study included 237 employees with COVID-19/risky contact who were monitored remotely via a telehealth service provided between April 6 and July 31, 2020. First, they were followed up for 21 days with the telehealth service. Second, they were invited by phone to complete an online questionnaire and 94 (39.7%) of them participated. The questionnaire included questions about pandemic-related difficulties experienced during the last year and the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI).Results: Of the 234 employees, 172 (73.5%) and 164 (70.1%) had the first and second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, re spectively. Employees who did not need psychological support had significantly lower PTGI change in self-perception and total scores than those who did not/could not receive psychological support (p=0.007 and p=0.016, respectively). Employees who used personal protective equipment (PPE) more carefully had a significantly higher PTGI self-perception score (p=0.005), life philosophy (p=0.014), interpersonal relationships (p=0.011), and total score (p=0.004) than employees who reported that they did not change how they use PPE and were sometimes careless.Conclusion: The results of our study suggest that health workers are showing evidence of posttraumatic growth by seeing the positives as well as the negatives caused by the pandemic.