PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON HEALTHCARE WORKERS’ PERFORMANCE IN KARACHI- A CROSS-SECTIONAL SURVEY

Abstract

BACKGROUND Covid-l 9 emerged from China in end of2019 and spread all over the world in 2021. The pandemic shook the healthcare systems all over the world even in developed countries like USA and Italy. This pandemic affected the healthcare workers psychologically and productivity at their workplace as well. This study was conducted to evaluate the psychological imact caused by Covid-l9 on healthcare workers performance in Karachi. METHODOLOGY Data was collected from 304 respondents by using a compilation of standardized questionnaire consisting of 32 items in total in which 7 consist of demographics and general components, 21 components of independent variables and 5 components of dependent variable. 23rd version ofSPSS was used to first test the reliability ofthe scale and then ran test for hypothesis testing. survey FINDINGS The findings ofthe study according to the data collected from survey is that psychological factors and healthcare workers’ performance are connected with each others, psychological health has major impact on job performance. During the COVID-19 the mental health of almost every healthcare worker affected and it also affect their productivity at their workplace. Healthcare workers’ performance reduces due to anxiety, depression, insomnia, Somatization, and fear of being carrier of virus. a LIMITATIONS Due to pandemic limited number of samples, time constraints and biasness as it was self assessment survey, these were the limititions in this study. RECOMMENDATIONS Health care organization should provide proper trainings how to deal with psychological symptoms and proper provision ofpersonal protection equipment and conduct counseling sessions for mental and physical health