Risk Perception and Impact of COVID-19 Outbreak on Medical Health Professionals

The novel coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and approximately 9 million cases have been reported to be diagnosed with the disease. Studies have revealed that this outbreak is associated with adverse mental health crisis among individuals with and without a diagnosis of COVID-19. Evidence suggests that self-reported symptoms of depression, anxiety, situational stress have been more prevalent in relation to the pandemic. Among the frontline medical health professionals, i.e., doctors and nurses are at the highest risk than others even after maintaining preventive measures. Frontline medical health professionals may have extensive constraint including a high risk of infection, isolation, and overwork. The perception of the risk to be infected or to be the carrier of the disease to others may increase the vulnerability to emotional distress. In this study, the aim is to explore the risk perception and impact of COVID-19 outbreak on frontline medical health professionals. The survey method has been used to make risk perception and impact on frontline medical health professionals. The result reveals that the concerns are present in the frontline medical health professionals due to risk factors, but through focusing on preventive measures and engaging in activities related to the profession is mostly helping in coping with the medical and psychological impacts. Perception of workload is present in terms of their ethics, duty and financial support. According to the frontline medical health professionals, there are concerns and responsibilities in terms of an asymptomatic carrier and transmitting the virus to other family members. It can be concluded that the presence of enormous risk factors increased the concerns of medical health professionals and through different preventive measures and precautions, the medical professionals are dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak.