Psychological Distress Among Healthcare Workers: A Study Of Public Sector Hospitals In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to find out how common psychological distress was among physicians at a Khyber Teaching Hospital in Peshawar, as well as what caused it and how they dealt with it. All medical staff members were given an online questionnaire, to which 476 healthcare workers responded with a 68% response rate. The results showed that the majority of healthcare workers—both physicians and non-physicians—had gone through periods of psychological distress, with the most often mentioned cause being their workplace. A variety of statistical analyses were performed to ascertain the relationship between different variables and psychological distress, including odds ratio and relative risk ratio tests in SPSS. [1]According to the findings, gender, age, occupation, experience, marital status, work experience, substance misuse, and psychological distress were found to be significantly correlated. The study also listed the causes of psychological distress and the coping mechanisms used. The results indicate that psychological distress was more common among female and younger doctors and other healthcare workers. Workplace problems were commonly mentioned as sources of anxiety, which frequently had a detrimental impact on productivity. The main sources of non-professional assistance were family and friends, whereas professional assistance was only occasionally sought. The study underscores the difficulties healthcare professionals encounter when disclosing psychological issues and stresses the necessity for hospital administration to put targeted initiatives in place to manage and prevent psychological distress among these professionals.