Emotional Symptomatology of Emergency Healthcare Personnel in a Health Institution in Medellín, Colombia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Nowadays, Depression, Anxiety and Stress are common diseases at the occupational level. It is not common for health institutions to screen staff for emotional symptoms, which motivated us to delve deeper into this topic.

Objective: To determine the emotional symptoms (symptoms of anxiety, depression and/or stress) of healthcare personnel in the emergency area (general physicians, emergency physicians, head nurses and nursing assistants) in a health institution in the city of Medellín, 2023.

Material and methods: Observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study. 22 nursing assistants, 10 physicians, 10 professional nurses and 1 emergency physician from the emergency area of ​​the health institution were surveyed. A validated DASS 21 survey was applied to determine the presence of Depression, Anxiety and Stress in health professionals.

Results: The surveyed personnel were 77% women and 23% men. The largest number of participants was between the ages of 22-29 years (53%), followed by the 30-45 age group (47%). There were more single participants (51.2%), followed by participants in free union (34.9%), married (9.3%) and divorced (4.7%). The frequencies found were depression at 30.2%, anxiety and stress at 32.6%. The age group with the highest frequency of these emotional symptoms was that of less than or equal to 29 years. However, in the group of those over 29 years of age, extremely severe stress and anxiety were identified with a frequency of 1 participant.

Conclusions: Of the three disorders, the one that occurred in the highest percentage was depression, followed by anxiety and stress. Higher percentages of depression and stress were observed in physicians. Nurses presented higher anxiety symptoms. The degree of depression, anxiety and stress that they presented the most was moderate, followed by mild.