• Tharwat Aisa, Dara Diviney, Jubil Thomas, Nada Al Qadheeb, Moamen Abdelbaky, Hosam Afify, Mustafa Yasawy, Mohamad Mahmoud, Ahmed Abdallah, Asma Bashir, Khaled Algrni, and Basheer Elgammal.
• Anesthesia and Adult Intensive Care Department, RCSI Louth Hospitals, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, Ireland. Tharwat40@yahoo.com.
• Ir J Med Sci. 2022 Jun 1; 191 (3): 1067-1073.

BackgroundIntensive care health care workers (HCWs) are frontlines of this crisis as they deal with critically ill COVID-19 patients which can potentially affect their mental well-being and causes different levels of stress.AimTo determine the prevalence of stress among HCWs involved in the management of critically ill COVID-19 patient, identify the factors associated with stress, and highlight the availability of psychological support provided to HCWs.MethodsA cross-sectional multicenter, international study using a web-based questionnaire of 27 questions including the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10) for assessment of stress level. Questions to identify factors associated with stress, the psychological support provided, and the sociodemographic characteristics were included.ResultsWe received a total 1649 responses from 59 countries: 550 (34%) were from Europe, 525 (32.36%) from Asia, 283 (17.44%) from Africa, 177 (11%) from America, and 88 (5.42%) from Australia. The average stress level was 22 points on the PSS denoting moderate stress in 1327 (81.8%) respondents, while 239 (14.73%) respondents had a severe level of stress. Female gender, working in high capacity units and remote areas in addition to lack of psychological support, was significantly associated with stress in our study.ConclusionStress level was moderate to severe among intensive care HCWs during this pandemic, and many factors were associated with stress emphasizing the importance of psychological support during that unprecedented pandemic.© 2021. Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.

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