The health crisis triggered by COVID-19 and the preventive measures taken to control it have caused a strong psychological impact on the population, especially on healthcare professionals. Risk exposure, uncertainty about how to approach the disease, care and emotional overburden, lack of resources, or unclear ever-changing protocols are, among others, psychological distress risk factors for the healthcare professionals who have faced this dramatic scenario on the front line. On the other hand, the Sense of Coherence (SOC) is a competence that could help these professionals perceive the situation as understandable, manageable, and meaningful, facilitating the activation of their resilience. This work aims to describe the levels of psychological distress and SOC of healthcare professionals during the crisis caused by COVID-19, the relationship between both variables, and their health status. A cross-sectional descriptive study with a sample of 1459 currently active healthcare workers was developed. GHQ-12 and SOC-13 were used for data collection. Bivariate analyses were performed, including Chi-Squared Test, Student’s T-Test, Analysis of Variance—ANOVA (with Bonferroni test for multiple comparisons), and correlations. Cohen’s d or Cramer’s V effect size measurements were also provided. The results showed that 80.6% of healthcare professionals had psychological distress, and the mean score on the SOC-13 scale was 62.8 points (SD = 12.02). Both psychological distress and SOC were related to the presence of COVID-19 symptoms, as well as with contact history. Professionals with psychological distress showed a lower SOC. Taking care of the mental health of healthcare professionals is essential to effectively cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the psychological impact of working in the current menacing scenario, people on the front line against the disease should be protected, minimizing risks, providing them with resources and support, and fostering their coping skills.

Healthcare workers serving during the COVID-19 pandemic may have been exposed to high work overload, which may have had an impact on their physical, mental, and social health. The aim of this study was to assess the risk factors associated with psychological distress among healthcare workers serving during the COVID-19 pandemic from January 2020 to December 2022. A systematic review was conducted based on the 2020 PRISMA statement. Articles were searched in the Pubmed, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, and PsycINFO databases. A total of 59 articles were included in this systematic review. It was observed that the prevalence of psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic was high. Female sex, being a nurse, being young, living alone/being single, and having a chronic disease or psychiatric disorder history are the main risk factors at the personal level. Other occupational and pandemic-related factors such as having many years of work experience, the presence of COVID-19 symptoms and contact history, not enough sleep, having lower family support and limited social relationships, fear of infecting friends and family, having a reduced perception of protection by personal protective equipment, working on the frontline, and having longer service duration were found to be factors influencing the development of psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are personal, interpersonal, and organizational risk factors that can lead to the occurrence of psychological distress among healthcare staff working during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In some areas of Spain, health services and professionals working in the front line against the Sars-Cov-2 virus have been widely overwhelmed at all levels. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the level of work engagement of Spanish nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional study was carried out. The sample consisted of 510 active nurses from all over Spain, without age exclusion, who voluntarily accepted to participate in the study. Work engagement was assessed with the 9-item Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) questionnaire, through an online questionnaire and non-probabilistic snowball sampling. The results showed a mean age of 45.9 years (SD = 10.7 years), most of them women (78.1%), and 58.5% were in primary care. The mean score for the UWES-9 questionnaire was 4.6 points (SD = 1.35). The categorical regression analysis performed revealed an R² value of 0.75 and a significance of p < 0.01 in the sex, type of unit, and training variables. The Spanish nurses in the sample present high levels of work engagement in all dimensions in general, although the lowest mean scores are found in the vigor dimension, among men, and nurses working in hospital and critical units.

Objectives: The aim of this review was to assess the possible risk factors arising from working conditions, that could have an impact on the stress, fear, and anxiety of construction workers.Methods: A systematic review was conducted following the PRISMA format in the Pubmed, Cochrane, Web of Science, Scopus, and PsycInfo electronic databases on February 3, 2023, using the following key words: anxiety, stress, fear, and construction workers. Methodological quality was assessed using the critical appraisal tools of the Joanna Briggs Institute.Results: A total of 35 studies were included. The results showed a number of conditioning factors for stress, anxiety, and fear among construction workers such as age, inappropriate safety equipment, safety culture, high workload and long working hours, physical pain, low social support from direct supervisor or co-workers, lack of organizational justice and lack of reward, financial situation, maladaptive coping strategies, and characteristics of the pandemic.Conclusions: There are a number of risk factors related to working conditions, organizations, and individuals that can affect the levels of stress, anxiety, and fear among construction workers, such as age, work hardship, safety culture and, especially, the long hours that construction professionals work. This may lead to an increase in the number of occupational accidents and higher associated fatality rates.Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42022367724, identifier: CRD42022367724.

Background and objectives: The incidence of breast cancer worldwide has increased in recent decades, accounting for 1 in 3 neoplasms in women. Besides, nurses are mainly represented by the female collective, most of them, undertaking working conditions with intensive rotative and night shifts due to the 24-h pace of work of this profession. The objective of this study was to assess the possible relationship between shift work, especially night-time work, and the development of breast cancer among nurses. Materials and Methods: A systematic review of the literature was carried out through the consultation of the following databases: Cochrane Plus Library, PubMed, CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Dialnet. Records were selected between 2010 and 2020, in Spanish and English, which covered the association between breast cancer diagnosed among nursing professionals and rotating night shifts. Results: A total of 12 studies were identified after critical reading. Most of the studies found an association between breast cancer and consecutive rotating night shifts prolonged over time. Among the associated factors, the alteration of the circadian rhythm influenced the expression of peripheral clock genes, which was the same as reproductive hormones. The risk of breast cancer in nurses increased during early adulthood and after 5 or more years with 6 or more consecutive nights. Conclusions: The different studies of this review show significant associations between breast cancer and prolonged rotating night shifts. Similarly, there is a relationship between the alterations in certain circadian rhythm markers (such as melatonin), epigenetic markers (such as telomeres), and breast cancer that would require more studies in order to corroborate these findings.

Background: Exposure to risk factors may lead to health problems of varied nature and to an increased risk of suffering accidents at work.Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the work engagement, psychosocial risks, and psychological well-being of Spanish nurses, analyzing existing relationships, and their associations with self-reported mental health problems of nurses.Methods: To this end, a cross-sectional observational study was carried out with a sample of 1,704 Spanish nurses between January 2019 and January 2020, using a self-administered questionnaire containing sociodemographic variables, the Spanish version of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (CoPsoQ-istas21), the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9), and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12).Results: The Kruskal-Wallis test showed that nurses' perceptions for each of the tests significantly differed among different healthcare areas (p < 0.05). The results indicated that emergency nurses offered higher scores in all dimensions of the CoPsoQ-istas21 and GHQ-12 tests; and in primary care, nurses scored higher in all three dimensions of the UWES-9 test. In addition, self-perceived health and vigor at work were identified as predictive factors of mental health.Conclusions: A high percentage of Spanish nurses perceived a high level of psychosocial risk in the exercise of their duties and nearly 41% could suffer from some mental health-related problem. Primary Care nurses showed higher levels of work engagement and lower perception of psychosocial risks than Emergency nurses. Results may allow to identify a professional profile which is more likely to suffer from psychological distress, as both the working conditions and the work commitment expressed by nurses in their daily work are key elements in assessing the possible psychosocial risks to which they may be exposed.