Examination of the problems of healthcare professionals resulting from the working life during the COVID-19 pandemic: Sakarya province case

The COVID-19 disease was declared as pandemic by the World Health Organization and caused the death of millions of people worldwide, causing severe economic and social disruptions in social life. Amongst the occupational groups, health workers are the most affected ones. The physical or psychological problems experienced by health workers during this process arise from working life. Therefore, this study consists of an interview with general practitioners/family physicians(12), assistant dr.'s(4), specialist dr.'s.(3), nurses(113), midwives(24), physiotherapy technicians(2), health technicians(28), medical secretaries(33), medical imaging technicians(18), medical laboratory and pathology technicians(7), medical prosthesis and orthotics technicians(3) and dentists(3) aimed to investigate the effects on the working life of health professionals. The questionnaire consisting of two parts applied to 250 health workers. Questions about working life consist of 38 questions under six main headings: working time, wage, occupational health and safety, working conditions, motivation and employee psychology, work-family balance and social relations. The findings were subjected to frequency analysis in SPSS V24 program. Within the scope of non-parametric testing, chi-square test was used in multiple categorical data evaluations. As a result, the COVID-19 Pandemic has eight(8) essential effects on health workers within the scope of working life. These; average weekly working hours, the damages caused by protective equipment, increasing psychological disorders, increased workload, working very fast, adverse effects of working conditions on work/family and life, increasing anxiety and anxiety level and attitudes of institutions.