Two studies today in JAMA Network Open describe the emotional toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers (HCWs), one showing that US HCWs experienced a range of negative emotions as the pandemic progressed, and the other concluding that mental distress eased 14 months into the pandemic in Italian clinicians.Pandemic 'has shaken my faith in medicine'In the US study, a team led by Duke University researchers surveyed 1,344 HCWs in 2020 about their emotional state before the availability of COVID-19 vaccines.
They recruited HCWs via email and social media from Apr 24 to May 30 (phase 1) and Oct 24 to Nov 30 (phase 2).In phase 1 involved 335 survey respondents of whom 32.6% were 35 to 44 years old, 86% were women, and 87.8% were White.