Psychological challenges faced community pharmacists during COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study
Main Article Content
Keywords
Community pharmacists, COVID-19, mental health, pandemic, psychological stress
Abstract
Background: There is an immense impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the psychological behavior of healthcare providers due to changing of the working load, financial issues, applying the preventative measures during dealing with the patients, etc. This in turn affects their delivery of the health services. Yet, very few studies have assessed these psychological alterations in community pharmacists. Objective: We aimed to assess the psychological and mental health changes of community pharmacists during COVID-19 early pandemic. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study questionnaire promoted by both multiple social media platforms and face-to-face interview for community pharmacists in different regions of Alexandria, Egypt between July and September 2021. Results: A total of 1054 community pharmacists (males; 59.8% and females; 40.2%) participated. Young and single pharmacists had significantly high feelings of anxiety, insomnia, and suffering from eating disorders compared with elder and married pharmacists (p < 0.05). Fulltime employed community pharmacists became significantly more nervousness and felt anxious than part-time pharmacists. Female, full-time and less experienced (< 5-year practice) pharmacists had significantly high reports of crying during their working time, and feeling hopeless and uncertain (p < 0.05). Conclusion: COVID-19 has high impact on the mental health of community pharmacists. In the future, regulatory bodies should implement proactive pandemic preparedness programs for sensitive categories of community pharmacists in order to ensure delivering of high quality of essential health services to the community.
References
2. Yang Y, Peng F, Wang R, Yange M, Guan K, Jiang T, et al. The deadly coronaviruses: The 2003 SARS pandemic and the 2020 novel coronavirus epidemic in China. J Autoimmun. 2020 May;109:102434.
3. Medhat MA, El Kassas M. COVID-19 in Egypt: Uncovered figures or a different situation? Journal of Global Health. 2020
Jun;10(1):010368.
4. Egypt: Authorities ease capacity restrictions for hotels, restaurants, and cinemas as of July 5 /update 27 | Crisis24 [Internet]. [cited 2023 Sep 7]. Egypt: Authorities ease capacity restrictions for hotels, restaurants, and cinemas as of July 5/update
27. Available from: https://crisis24.garda.com/alerts/2021/07/egypt-authorities-ease-capacity-restrictions-for-hotelsrestaurants-and-cinemas-as-of-july-5-update-27
5. El-Zoghby SM, Soltan EM, Salama HM. Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health and Social Support among Adult Egyptians. J Community Health. 2020 Aug;45(4):689–95.
6. Kassem AB, Al Meslamani AZ, Elmaghraby DH, Magdy Y, AbdElrahman M, Hamdan AME, et al. The pharmacists’ interventions
after a Drug and Therapeutics Committee (DTC) establishment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice. 2024 Dec 31;17(1):2372040.
7. Moustafa HAM, Kassem AB. COVID-19-related health literacy and preparedness to what may come: a cross-sectional study. Beni-Suef University Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences. 2023 Dec 11;12(1):114.
8. Bennett M, Goode JVR. Recognition of community-based pharmacist practitioners: Essential health care providers. Journal of the American Pharmacists Association. 2016 Sep;56(5):580–3.
9. Johnston K, O’Reilly CL, Scholz B, Georgousopoulou EN, Mitchell I. Burnout and the challenges facing pharmacists during COVID-19: results of a national survey. Int J Clin Pharm. 2021 Jun;43(3):716–25.
10. Kassem AB, Ghoneim AI, Nounou MI, El‐Bassiouny NA. Community pharmacists’ needs, education, and readiness in facing
COVID‐19: Actions & recommendations in Egypt. Int J Clin Pract [Internet]. 2021 Nov [cited 2022 Feb 10];75(11). Available
from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ijcp.14762
11. Nguyen LH, Drew DA, Graham MS, Joshi AD, Guo CG, Ma W, et al. Risk of COVID-19 among front-line health-care workers and the general community: a prospective cohort study. The Lancet Public Health. 2020 Sep;5(9):e475–83.
12. Hayden JC, Parkin R. The challenges of COVID-19 for community pharmacists and opportunities for the future. Ir J Psychol Med. 2020 Sep;37(3):198–203.
13. McCallum BA, Dunkley K, Hotham E, Suppiah V. Bushfires, COVID-19 and Australian community pharmacists: ongoing impact on mental health and wellbeing. International Journal of Pharmacy Practice. 2021 Mar 17;29(2):186–8.
14. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [Internet]. 2020 [cited 2023 Jul 20]. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
15. FIP Library [Internet]. [cited 2023 Jul 20]. Available from: https://www.fip.org// publications?publicationCategory=97&publicationYear=2020&publicationKeyword=
16. Google Docs [Internet]. [cited 2023 Jul 20]. IPC Guidelines COVID-19.pdf. Available from: https://drive.google.com/file/u/0/d/1T_m8Wl_uFyaAYsavi0yGq1JAhMSP61sG/view?pli=1&usp=embed_facebook
17. Hystad SW, Johnsen BH. The Dimensionality of the 12-Item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12): Comparisons of Factor
Structures and Invariance Across Samples and Time. Front Psychol [Internet]. 2020 Jun 11 [cited 2024 Sep 4];11. Available from: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01300/full
18. Sample Size Calculator [Internet]. [cited 2023 Oct 18]. Available from: https://www.calculator.net/sample-size-calculator.html?type=1&cl=95&ci=5&pp=50&ps=79361&x=77&y=8
19. Al Meslamani AZ, Kassem AB, El‐Bassiouny NA, Ibrahim OM. An emergency plan for management of COVID‐19 patients in rural areas. Int J Clin Pract [Internet]. 2021 Oct [cited 2023 Aug 24];75(10). Available from: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ijcp.14563
20. Baldonedo-Mosteiro C, Franco-Correia S, Mosteiro-Diaz MP. Psychological impact of COVID19 on community pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. Exploratory Research in Clinical and Social Pharmacy. 2022 Mar;5:100118.
21. Austin Z, Gregory P. Resilience in the time of pandemic: The experience of community pharmacists during COVID-19. Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy. 2021 Jan;17(1):1867–75.
22. Young KP, Kolcz DL, Ferrand J, O’Sullivan DM, Robinson K. Healthcare Worker Mental Health and Wellbeing During COVID-19: Mid-Pandemic Survey Results. Front Psychol. 2022;13:924913.
23. Baratta F, Visentin GM, Ravetto Enri L, Parente M, Pignata I, Venuti F, et al. Community Pharmacy Practice in Italy during the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) Pandemic: Regulatory Changes and a Cross-Sectional Analysis of Seroprevalence. IJERPH. 2021 Feb 26;18(5):2302.
24. Tian H, Liu Y, Li Y, Wu CH, Chen B, Kraemer MUG, et al. An investigation of transmission control measures during the first 50 days of the COVID-19 epidemic in China. Science. 2020 May 8;368(6491):638–42.
25. Ho CS, Chee CY, Ho RC. Mental Health Strategies to Combat the Psychological Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Beyond Paranoia and Panic. Ann Acad Med Singap. 2020 Mar 16;49(3):155–60.
26. Bahlol M, Dewey RS. Pandemic preparedness of community pharmacies for COVID-19. Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy. 2021 Jan;17(1):1888–96.
27. Gates B. Responding to Covid-19 — A Once-in-a-Century Pandemic? New England Journal of Medicine. 2020 Apr 30;382(18):1677–9.
28. Sarfraz M, Ji X, Asghar M, Ivascu L, Ozturk I. Signifying the Relationship between Fear of COVID-19, Psychological Concerns, Financial Concerns and Healthcare Employees Job Performance: A Mediated Model. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Feb 24;19(5):2657.
29. Boniol M, McIsaac M, Xu L, Wuliji T, Diallo K, Campbell J. Gender equity in the health workforce: analysis of 104 countries [Internet]. World Health Organization; 2019 [cited 2023 Jul 21]. Report No.: WHO/HIS/HWF/Gender/WP1/2019.1. Available from: https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/311314
30. Van Hees S, Siewe Fodjo JN, Wijtvliet V, Van den Bergh R, Faria de Moura Villela E, da Silva CF, et al. Access to healthcare and prevalence of anxiety and depression in persons with epilepsy during the COVID-19 pandemic: A multicountry online survey. Epilepsy Behav. 2020 Nov;112:107350.
31. Samir AlKudsi Z, Hany Kamel N, El-Awaisi A, Shraim M, Saffouh El Hajj M. Mental health, burnout and resilience in community pharmacists during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study. Saudi Pharm J. 2022 Jul;30(7):1009–17.
32. Lee YR, Lee JY, Kim JM, Shin IS, Yoon JS, Kim SW. A Comparative Study of Burnout, Stress, and Resilience among Emotional Workers. Psychiatry Investig. 2019 Sep;16(9):686–94.
33. Blake H, Bermingham F, Johnson G, Tabner A. Mitigating the Psychological Impact of COVID-19 on Healthcare Workers: A
Digital Learning Package. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Apr 26;17(9):E2997.
34. Greenberg N, Docherty M, Gnanapragasam S, Wessely S. Managing mental health challenges faced by healthcare workers
during covid-19 pandemic. BMJ. 2020 Mar 26;368:m1211.
35. Walton M, Murray E, Christian MD. Mental health care for medical staff and affiliated healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eur Heart J Acute Cardiovasc Care. 2020 Apr;9(3):241–7.
36. Chua SE, Cheung V, Cheung C, McAlonan GM, Wong JWS, Cheung EPT, et al. Psychological effects of the SARS outbreak in Hong Kong on high-risk health care workers. Can J Psychiatry. 2004 Jun;49(6):391–3.
37. Iflaifel M, Lim RH, Ryan K, Crowley C. Resilient Health Care: a systematic review of conceptualisations, study methods and factors that develop resilience. BMC Health Services Research. 2020 Apr 17;20(1):324.
Article Sidebar
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.