Assessment of anxiety level of emergency health-care workers by generalized anxiety disorder-7 tool

BACKGROUND: Dealing with emergency patients is considered to be a stressful situation to all health-care workers in the emergency department (ED). Prolonged stress predispose to physical and inconsequential psychiatric disturbances. Anxiety and depressive mode were found to be the most commonly experienced psychiatric manifestation among emergency health-care workers. The aim of this study is to screen and assess the severity of anxiety among health professionals working in ED. METHODS: Cross-sectional study design was used. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)-7 screening tool was used to assess for anxiety symptoms. GAD-7 is a validated self-report tool that comprises seven questions where each question is rated on a 3-point scale. Demographic data were collected from the study sample. The study sample consists of emergency physician, nurses, and other emergency medical services workers. Data analysis was performed using SAS version 9.2 software. Descriptive statistics, nonparametric comparison, and correlation were performed as part of data analysis. RESULTS: = 0.028 and 0.048, respectively. There is no significant difference in GAD-7 score among health professional dealing with adult versus pediatrics patient. CONCLUSION: From this study, it was concluded that more than 52% of the health-care team members manifested with moderate to severe anxiety disorder that requires counseling and referral for support and treatment. Prolonged and unrecognized anxiety may predispose to major psychiatric morbidity, exhaustion, and resignations from the duties. Hospital administration needs to be aware of the level of anxiety and the most likely affected population to build preventive strategies.