Background:
Existing literature has demonstrated a connection between exposure to natural disasters and specific collective traumatic events such as wars, and mental health. Healthcare professionals in hospitals working in intense conclict zones are exposed to threats to their life while coping with the burden of responsibility to patients' health. These circumstances may affect their psychological wellbeing as well as their workability, i.e. their capacity to meet the physical, functional and mental demands of their job. There have been no investigations of wartime threats and workability among healthcare professionals in hospitals, nor on the associated biologic mechanisms in this group of employees.
Method:
Healthy healthcare professionals (n=90) who worked in a hospital located in Israel were assessed for perceived workability, perceived stress, life satisfaction and the concentrations of the pro-inflammatory cytokines interleukin-1 (IL-1), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α).
Results:
We found significant inverse correlations between workability and pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1 IL-6. Workability was significantly and positively associated with life satisfaction (.375, p<.05) and negatively with perceived stress (-.447, p<.01). Surprisingly, almost 70% of the healthcare professionals had a high score of workability i.e. they believed they could successfully handle the stressful demands under the pervasive danger to provide medical care and empathic compassion to patients. It could be that maintaining high levels of perceived workability is a marker of psychological and physical resilience in times of intense war threats.
Discussion:
This is the first study that examined workability and the biological profiles of hospital-healthcare professionals who worked under constant threat of missile attacks during wartime.