EC Neurology

Background: Due to the difficult emergency situation and critical consequences forced on all sectors, including healthcare, during the COVID-19 epidemic, medical staff and healthcare employees have been significantly facing difficult working conditions and stressful circumstances, mirrored by great mental stress and a higher level of tension because of an increased degree of medical services and healthcare requirements need for patients.

Methodology: This research is carried out to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the healthcare providers' mental health status, such as medical staff and employees working at the Jordanian Royal Medical Services (JRMS). The research was conducted between February 1^st, 2022, and March 10^th, 2022. A cross-sectional descriptive study was executed to achieve the study goal and collect primary data associated with the COVID-19 effect on healthcare providers' mental health status. In addition, the DASS-21 scale was implemented to evaluate the depression, anxiety, and stress among doctors, nurses, and other healthcare employees. An online questionnaire was developed and distributed using social media sites.

Results: The cross-sectional research findings revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic influenced a large portion of the study's participants, either by stress or the deaths of some relatives. All of them got vaccinated to mitigate the COVID-19 severe infection. Besides, participants' anxiety was the most affected domain by the COVID-19 pandemic, as 753 participants (77.2%) had an extremely severe level of anxiety during the Corona epidemic. Anxiety is followed by depression, in which 387 participants (39.7%) had extremely critical depression levels due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, 113 participants (11.6%) had extremely severe stress circumstances because of Coronavirus consequences. Also, results indicated that males had a higher rate of depression, anxiety, and stress than females. Further, younger healthcare providers had larger levels of depression, anxiety, and stress than females. In addition, married doctors, nurses, and pharmacists were greatly depressed, anxious, and stressed than single healthcare employees. Moreover, healthcare workers living in urban areas were more greatly influenced by the COVID-19 than those living in rural communities. Healthcare employees who have experience (16 to 20 years) had greater depression, anxiety, and stress than those with a richer experience. Doctors, nurses, and pharmacists with a salary of (500 to 1,000 JD) were highly depressed, anxious, and stressed than other healthcare employees with less or higher salaries than (500 to 1,000 JD). Finally, results affirmed that nurses, who had more contact with patients, were remarkably affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and had a larger degree of depression, anxiety, and stress than other healthcare employees.

Conclusions and Significant Remarks: It can be concluded from this research that the COVID-19 pandemic played a critical role in affecting the medical healthcare's depression, anxiety, and stress. Thus, following active methods and functional approaches to relieve these severe aspects is crucial for better working circumstances in healthcare organizations. These dynamic approaches include training and education for the healthcare providers to educate them on managing, realizing, and controlling depression, anxiety, and stress in their work during such emergency cases.

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Mental Health Status; Healthcare Providers; Depression; Anxiety; Stress

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