BACKGROUND: In early 2020, the impending COVID‐19 pandemic placed a once‐in‐a‐generation professional and personal challenge upon healthcare workers. Publications on direct physical disease abound. The authors wished to focus on doctors’ psychological wellbeing. OBJECTIVES: To assess the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the doctors’ wellbeing and evaluate their concerns as the pandemic progressed. METHODS: A mixed‐methods, hospital‐based survey was sent to the doctors at the 650‐bed tertiary referral hospital in NSW at two different periods (late‐March and early‐May 2020). A validated mental wellbeing tool (SWEMWBS, Short Warwick Edinburgh Scale) was combined with COVID‐19 specific questions. RESULTS: 235 responses were obtained from 450 doctors, with a response rate of 32% in the first survey and 20% in the second. The majority (35%) of respondents were doctors‐in‐training, followed by staff‐specialists (23%). The highest response was from frontline workers in both surveys, including the intensive‐care unit (27%), anaesthesia (21%), and emergency department (13%). “Extreme concern” regarding PPE shortage dropped from 22.6% to 2.2% and “extreme concern” of contracting COVID‐19 fell from 22.6% to 3.4% in the second survey. The proportion of respondents with a “low” psychological wellbeing score improved from 38% to 27% between the two surveys. The resulting mean improvement in the SWEMWBS was 3.49 (95% CI: 3.06 to 3.91, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Both COVID‐19 specific concerns and psychological wellbeing improved greatly in the second survey. Possible explanations are the fall in COVID‐19 cases in the district, improvements in PPE supply, and supportive measures communicated to doctors during this period. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
“Concerns and Psychological Wellbeing of Health Care Workers During the COVID‐19 Pandemic in a Tertiary Care Hospital in NSW”