Keywords: family physicians; COVID-19;life quality
Introduction:
Family Physicians (FPs) who are experiencing high levels of stress and psychological distress as a result of the recent COVID-19 outbreak are also faced with the dilemma of "keep them alive or survive" due to the difficulty of managing the pandemic. The purpose of this study was to look into the working conditions of FPs during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as their concerns about the disease spreading to them and their families.
Method:
A total of 255 FPs participated in this cross-sectional study. A 26-question Descriptive Data Form was used as data collection tool.
Results:
While the average working year of FPs was 13.7±10.2, the average weekly working hour was 42.1±7.6 during the pandemic. 39.2% of FPs work in family health center, 38.0% in university hospital, 16.5% in state hospital. 51.4% of FPs stated that they hadn't experienced an epidemic before, and 54.9% stated that their expenses increased during the pandemic period. 92.9 % said they vaccinated COVID-19 vaccine. 22.7 % of FPs were forced to stay somewhere other than their homes to avoid transmission, 51.4 % of physicians' working orders have changed. 54.1 % worked in a pandemic hospital, while 78.8% looked after a suspected COVID-19 patient. The level of anxiety increases as the number of patients treated rises (p<0.05). It was found that as the difficulty of coping increased while doing this in the daily routine, the anxiety of infecting the disease and infecting the family increased as well (p<0.05)
Conclusions:
Family physicians were more concerned about transmitting the COVID-19 disease to their family members than themselves. There was a link between the difficulty of coping while performing services for COVID-19 patients and the anxiety of transmission of the disease. Family physicians should be supported not only at their workplace but also for the ones that they are as caregivers.
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