Mental Health Impacts Due to COVID-19: A Narrative Review

Mental health impacts due to
covid-19: A NARRATIVE
REVIEW

ABSTRACT
COVID-19 has created large number of emergencies in healthcare departments and healthcare
workers have shown their effective contribution in terms of dealing with the situation. However,
during COVID-19 a negative impact on the mental health of healthcare workers has occurred.
The major reason behind this was due to the increasing extent of their work pressure. The major
aim of literature review is to identify the psychological impact over the well-being of healthcare
workers during the time of COVID. The pandemic has influenced the mental health of
Healthcare workers which is being covered in the study. Comprehensive research has been and a
literature review has been performed in the context of this topic. The findings of the authors have
been analysed and a narrative review has been conducted using inclusion and exclusion criteria.
The major findings of the study have revealed that COVID-19 has created mental issues such as-
depression, anxiety and stress for healthcare workers that has impacted their quality of life and
work. The interventions that are needed for tackling a such situation in future are concerned with
counselling by healthcare administration and proper guidance for healthcare workers in terms of
managing such situations.

INTRODUCTION
COVID-19 has had far-reaching effects’ all over the world and mainly it has provided
negative psychological effects on the frontline healthcare workers (FLHCWs). Healthcare
workers especially nurses are exposed, due to COVID-19 to the increased risk of developing the
mental health issues (Escalante et.al. 2022). The nurses have performed major responsibilities in
treating the patients who were infected with COVID-19. The mental health impacts are usually
neglected at the time of pandemic management however, the consequences are costly as the
negative impacts of mental health on healthcare workers have created huge issues for healthcare
workers. The frontline healthcare workers have been consistently facing the mental issues that
are related to work pressure, low level of support from family members, community and the
hospital administration.
Psychological well-being has an important impact over individual’s well-being. However,
due to COVID this has become more serious for nurses. As the psychological well-being of
healthcare workers has not been given high priority and therefore, this is also impacting their
mental health. Especially during the time of COVID-19 the work pressure over frontline
healthcare workers was extremely high and that has created certain psychological impacts on
FLHCWs. COVID-19 has created mental health issues such as- anxiety, depression, fatigue,
stress order, post traumatic and distress (Elbay et.al. 2022).
The depressive symptoms in healthcare workers is extremely high due to the ongoing
emergencies of COVID-19 which have resulted in consistent shifts of the healthcare workers.
Nurses who spend the day-night shift at hospital are mainly concerned with the psychological
difficulties. The continuous pressure has been created over the healthcare workers in order to
tackle the situation and therefore, the pressure has impacted the psychological-well-being of
healthcare workers. This literature review aims to identify the negative impact over the
psychological well-being of healthcare workers due to COVID-19 and the risk towards frontline
healthcare workers. The Literature review will also examine preventative measures for
healthcare workers in context of dealing with mental health impacts.