COVID-19 has been announced as a pandemic since February 2020. Since then, the transmission rate of the virus was rapid, with an increasing number of cases reported globally. This has increased the workload on healthcare systems and healthcare workers. However, the psychological impact of this stressful situation on the medical staff needs to be explored. The goal of this systematic review is to explore the psychological impact of COVID-19 on healthcare workers. The medical literature was investigated through databases Medline, Ovid, PubMed, and Psych info, over the past year between 1st September 2019 and 1st June 2020. Search terms included the combination of psychological impact AND healthcare workers OR medical staff AND COVID-19. Regarding the filtration of the result, it was made sure that only original research articles evaluating the psychological effect of COVID-19 on healthcare workers were included. Selected trials mentioned the specialty of the medical staff under investigation. A total of 360 articles were retrieved. Following the exclusion of ineligible articles, 28 articles were finalized. Finally, a total of seven articles were selected as eligible, covering a total of 14,830 healthcare workers who worked during the COVID-19 pandemic. All the included studies were survey studies with a qualitative prospective design. Healthcare workers working during the COVID-19 pandemic were found with severe stress and anxiety. Psychological support services should be available for them at their site of work.
Key words: COVID-19, psychological impact, medical staff, healthcare workers
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