Mental Health Services for Healthcare Providers of Critical Patients

Background of the Project

The project’s topic was selected due to raising concerns related to healthcare providers’ mental health, especially during the pandemic. Although new potential infections should be properly addressed with clinicians’ focus on patients’ physical well-being, the emotional well-being of nurses is extremely important for the provision of quality healthcare (Stuijfzand et al., 2020; Soylu et al., 2021). Thus, the project aims to evaluate the provision of mental health services for healthcare providers of critical patients in a primary care facility as its setting and with Jewell Snider as the mentor.

Goals

First of all, the project aims to explore healthcare employees’ exhaustion, stress, burnout, compassion fatigue, and other mental health disorders that occur in the workplace. In addition, it will cover the scope of the provision of mental health assistance for them by the hospital’s services (Søvold, 2021; Cai et al., 2020). Finally, the project will evaluate mental healthcare amenities provided for critical patients by healthcare specialists during the pandemic.

Need Assessment

The project’s perceived needs include financial, stakeholder, patient, spiritual, facility, and funding needs. In general, the aim of the project is the evaluation of the efficacy and accessibility of mental health assistance provided for healthcare professionals and critical patients for its subsequent improvement (Chirico et al., 2021; Serrano-Ripoll et al., 2020; Greenberg et al., 2020). Thus, the improved mental health of these categories will decrease the health care system’s burden and costs, positively impact patient outcomes and interaction between the facility’s members, and contribute to individuals’ emotional, spiritual, and even physical health. In order to make decisions, allocate resources, and achieve programmatic objectives, needs will be assessed through direct observations and literature review.

Stakeholders

The project’s main stakeholders are psychologists, social workers, and nurses. Thus, psychologists want to support the project, social workers are not swayed either way but need to be informed, and nurses may resist due to the belief that the project may negatively impact what they do. In order to address all of them, the researcher should provide correct information concerning the research writing a letter to all stakeholders and explaining that their personal information and results will be secured. In this case, trust between stakeholders and the researcher will be established.

Project Requirements and Tools

In general, the project requires time, financial, and material resources, including tools and equipment, in order to accomplish its goals. First of all, the involved stakeholders’ emotional well-being will be examined by scholars before the project as a baseline to compare the project’s findings with the results. If the project’s needs are met, PERT and WBS techniques will be essential for measurements (Suryono & Hasbullah, 2020). At the same time, a Christian servant-leadership approach may be used to guide the researcher to design and implement interventions developing and optimizing performance. Leaders focus on day-to-day education, performance preparation, and the promotion of stakeholders’ personal achievements.

Literature Review

Available secondary data focuses on the mental health of healthcare practitioners who care for critical patients during the pandemic. Literature search strategies that include the use of keywords, phrases, and key terms will be applied. The central database for the researcher will be the online school library. The CRAAP test will be used to evaluate the reliability of resources (Esparrago-Kalidas, 2021). The inclusion criteria will be workers’ mental health – thus, articles that address it will be included, while articles with a lack of identified information will be excluded, respectively.

AlAteeq et al. (2020) address the mental health of Saudi Arabian healthcare providers during the pandemic. Using questionnaires for a cross-sectional study, authors aim to assess the levels of anxiety and depression among healthcare specialists in medical facilities. According to the results, more than half of the participants experience both anxiety and depressive disorder (AlAteeq et al., 2020). This study demonstrates the necessity of addressing healthcare specialists’ individual issues along with the promotion of altruism, solidarity, and social inclusion.

De Pablo et al. (2020) aim to systematize both physical and mental health issues of healthcare providers that have occurred predominantly during the pandemic. Their meta-analysis and systematic review identified the most common mental health burden of clinicians, including general health concerns, fear, psychological distress, insomnia, anxiety, burnout, PTSD, and stigmatization feelings. In general, this study describes the scope of the problem that requires an immediate solution.

Di Tella et al. (2020) investigate the impact of the pandemic on Italian healthcare workers’ mental health. Using responses of 145 participants, authors find out that working with COVID-19 patients is strongly associated with healthcare providers’ high levels of PTSS and depression (Di Tella et al., 2020). In addition, women without relationships demonstrate the highest levels of mental health disorders. Thus, this study provides an insight into targeted solutions on the basis of workers’ gender, age, or marital status.

A systematic review by Vizheh et al. (2020) aims to review all available materials related to healthcare workers’ mental health. Included cross-sectional studies reveal that front-line healthcare providers, nurses, younger medical staff, and female workers suffer from high levels of anxiety, stress, and depression. On the basis of this research, it is recommended for managers and policymakers to adopt encouragement, supportive, and motivational training and intervention to improve workers’ mental health.

Finally, following the example of other countries, Tsamakis et al. (2020) investigate how the pandemic impacts the mental well-being of healthcare providers in Greece. In this descriptive research, the authors state that clinicians have faced unprecedented psychological pressure that led to high levels of anxiety, stress, emotional burnout, and even fear-triggered panic attacks. At the same time, researchers mention that raising concerns related to the importance of healthcare specialists’ mental well-being will lead to the development of appropriate solutions.

Biblical Reflection

As a healthcare provider, I realize that I am responsible for others, serve them, and put their physical and mental health as my top priority. Thus, the verses (Matthew 5:3–7) play an important role in recognizing the urge for God and my spiritual poverty. I understand that my duty is to satisfy patients’ needs according to God’s will addressing their emotional suffering (Kilbourne et al., 2018). In addition, I believe that my devoutness will help others to establish healthy relationships with God and serve Him.

References

AlAteeq, D. A., Aljhani, S., Althiyabi, I., & Majzoub, S. (2020). Mental health among healthcare providers during coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Saudi Arabia. Journal of Infection and Public Health, 13(10), 1432-1437. Web.

Cai, W., Lian, B., Song, X., Hou, T., Deng, G., & Li, H. (2020). A cross-sectional study on mental health among health care workers during the outbreak of Corona Virus Disease 2019. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 51, 102111.

Chirico, F., Nucera, G., &Magnavita, N. (2021). Protecting the mental health of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 emergency. BJPsych International, 18(1), 1-2. Web.

de Pablo, G. S., Vaquerizo-Serrano, J., Catalan, A., Arango, C., Moreno, C., Ferre, F., Shin, J. I., Sullivan, S., Brondino, N., Solmi, M., & Fusar-Poli, P. (2020). Impact of coronavirus syndromes on physical and mental health of health care workers: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 275, 48-57. Web.

Di Tella, M., Romeo, A., Benfante, A., & Castelli, L. (2020). Mental health of healthcare workers during the COVID‐19 pandemic in Italy. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 26(6), 1583-1587. Web.

Esparrago-Kalidas, A. J. (2021). The effectiveness of CRAAP test in evaluating credibility of sources. International Journal of TESOL & Education, 1(2), 1-14. Web.

Greenberg, N., Docherty, M., Gnanapragasam, S., & Wessely, S. (2020). Managing mental health challenges faced by healthcare workers during covid-19 pandemic. bmj, 368. Web.

Kilbourne, A. M., Beck, K., Spaeth‐Rublee, B., Ramanuj, P., O’Brien, R. W., Tomoyasu, N., & Pincus, H. A. (2018). Measuring and improving the quality of mental health care: A global perspective. World Psychiatry, 17(1), 30-38.

Serrano-Ripoll, M. J., Meneses-Echavez, J. F., Ricci-Cabello, I., Fraile-Navarro, D., Fiol-deRoque, M. A., Pastor-Moreno, G., Castro, A., Ruiz-Pérez, I., Campos, R. Z., & Gonçalves-Bradley, D. C. (2020). Impact of viral epidemic outbreaks on mental health of healthcare workers: A rapid systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 277, 347-357. Web.

Søvold, L. E., Naslund, J. A., Kousoulis, A. A., Saxena, S., Qoronfleh, M. W., Grobler, C., & Münter, L. (2021). Prioritizing the mental health and well-being of healthcare workers: An urgent global public health priority. Frontiers in Public Health, 9. Web.

Soylu, V. G., Taşkın, Ö., Demir, U., &Yılmaz, A. (2021). The mental health of intensive care unit healthcare workers who care for critical patients in pandemics. Annals of Clinical and Analytical Medicine, 12(8), 903-906. Web.

Stuijfzand, S., Deforges, C., Sandoz, V., Sajin, C. T., Jaques, C., Elmers, J., & Horsch, A. (2020). Psychological impact of an epidemic/pandemic on the mental health of healthcare professionals: A rapid review. BMC Public Health, 20(1), 1-18. Web.

Suryono, Y. B., & Hasbullah, H. (2020). Analysis of new production line project improvement through critical path method (CPM), design structure matrix (DSM) and program evaluation and review (PERT). Journal of Industrial Engineering & Management Research, 1(4), 9-17. Web.

Tsamakis, K., Rizos, E., Manolis, A. J., Chaidou, S., Kympouropoulos, S., Spartalis, E., Spandidos, D. A., Tsiptsios, D., & Triantafyllis, A. S. (2020). [Comment] COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on mental health of healthcare professionals. Experimental and Therapeutic Medicine, 19(6), 3451-3453. Web.

Vizheh, M., Qorbani, M., Arzaghi, S. M., Muhidin, S., Javanmard, Z., & Esmaeili, M. (2020). The mental health of healthcare workers in the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review. Journal of Diabetes & Metabolic Disorders, 19(2), 1967-1978. Web.