Awareness and psychosocial effects of COVID-19 pandemic on health care professionals and medical students across the state of Maharashtra
Author(s): Sanket Bakshi, Vaishnavi Toshniwal, Aman Agrawal, Sourya Acharya*
Abstract
COVID 19 - The pandemic which has advanced globally in mere time, is a disease resulting from an infection by newly discovered strain of coronavirus- ' SARS-coV-2'. The healthcare professionals, are working tirelessly, and are honoring their services towards the general population, despite the threat of getting infected. Our study assessed the knowledge and attitude of the medical professionals towards this pandemic, and also discussed the effects that this crisis is causing on their psychosocial stability. From the 1611 responses collected through all over the state of Maharashtra, the results concluded that out of all the healthcare professionals 20% were comorbid with hypertension and diabetes.71.4% medical executives took appropriate training before joining there COVID duties.43% voted “air borne” mode being the primary route of transmission.37.2% workers used the face mask in there hospitals even before the onset of this pandemic, while 48% medical professionals changed their facemasks once every day. 74.8% of these were trained about the prime subject of proper “hand washing”. 43.5% voted that the windows of the COVID wards should be kept tightly closed.14% believed that antiviral drugs along with antiretroviral drugs should be the treatment of choice in the absence of vaccine. On the other hand 21.3% had an anxious feeling regarding the pandemic, due to the stigma of the infection 53% voted to wear PPE kits even when coming in contact with non-covid patients, as a result it was seen that 27% opted to avoid their duties due to the risk of getting infected, while 55.8% were in the favour to carry on the hospital duties amidst the pandemic. 21.6% doctors along with 28.2% nurses got the coronavirus infection while on postings. Due to all the stress 35.1% medical professionals suffered from insomnia as a result of which 44% had frequent temper out bursts, which led to difficulty in spending quality with families.