Impact on patients’ workload due to COVID-19 pandemic in a high volume radiodiagnosis department and its effect on health-care personnel of a tertiary care hospital in Bihar

Abstract

Background: The study aimed to estimate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the amount of work and mental well-being of the employees. The front-line workers of the radiodiagnosis department incorporated remarkable stress, during caring for COVID-19-infected patients, which led to new encounters of work arrangements in the department. Methodology: The study was piloted from April 2019 to March 2022, to estimate the amount of work and mental well-being of health workers in the Department of Radiodiagnosis at Tertiary Health Care Hospital of North India. General Health Questionnaire-12 was applied to assess the mental well-being. Results: Health-care personnel, who faced COVID-19 patients, were subjected to more workload and mental stress compared to others. Radiological investigation requires a very close contact with the patients and due to high infectivity, morbidity, mortality, and no definite line of treatment, it causes unprecedented mental and physical stress to radiologist, radiographer, and hospital attendants, in comparison to the other investigations. Conclusion: Job nature, working hours, learning level, and close contact with COVID-19 patients, affected the adverse mental status of the members of the radiodiagnosis department. Radiographers and residents were under higher mental stress compared to others. We advocated that complete support should be delivered to support the well-being of health-care personnel. Front-line workers in the department of radiodiagnosis are supposed to be low stress and workload, but high work commitment.

Keywords

• covid-19
• effect on health-care personnel
• impact on patients
• pandemic
• sociodemographic
• stress
• tertiary care hospital
• workload