EFFECT OF COVID-19 ON EMERGENCY SERVICE WORKERS

Introduction: 
 Healthcare professionals have been of the fight against the pandemic, continued for more than a year. The anxiety levels of healthcare workers due to increased workload, social isolation, fear of catching COVID-19, etc. have increased significantly. The aim of this study is to determine the anxiety levels of emergency service workers who are always at the forefront of the fighting against the pandemic in Turkey. 
Methods: 
 A questionnaire containing demographic information and the questions of 2 different scales (generalized anxiety disorder-7 scale, coronavirus anxiety scale), whose validation and reliability were performed in Turkey, was delivered via the web to the emergency room workers. 
Results: 
Personnel working in the emergency service of a tertiary state hospital, 74% were reached. On the generalized anxiety scale, 53% of the participants received a score of 11 or above (severe anxiety). While the mean values of the generalized anxiety scale in the income and education groups showed a statistically significant correlation, the anxiety mean scores of those with less than 2 years of employment were found to be statistically significantly lower, and the anxiety mean scores of those who had covid-19 during the pandemic were found to be statistically significantly higher. This was found to be related to those with high anxiety and covid-related anxiety scores not wanting to work in the emergency service. 
Conclusion: 
 As a result of the study, it was revealed emergency service workers have a high level of anxiety originating from pandemics, regardless of their seniority, age, and gender.