Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a significant loss of human life
throughout the world, and it poses an unprecedented threat to public
health, food systems, and the workplace. COVID-19 has a significant
impact on our lives right now; in addition to physical health, it has an
influence on human mental health, particularly among medical personnel.
“The current study found to support that the medical staff unfolded
greater fear, anxiety, and depression than the administrative staff.
Moreover, the front-line medical staff working in the department of
respiratory, emergency, ICU, and infectious disease, were twice more
likely to suffer anxiety and depression than the non-clinical staff with
the hard possibility to contact with coronavirus pneumonia patients.”
(Lu et al., 2020).
The impact factors that they found were “Being isolated, working in
high-risk positions, and having contact with infected people are common
causes of trauma. These factors may have impacted medical and nursing
staff in Wuhan, leading to mental health problems.” (Kang et al., 2020)
The author also conducted a study based on gender, age, marriage,
education level, occupation, and department to identify several factors
that may influence doctors’ mental health. In conclusion, the variables
that contributed to mental health issues among healthcare workers have
increased, and some new effects have emerged, but the major causes were
the working environment, pressures, and overworked.
However, none of the studies above indicated much about the mental
health of laboratory technicians who are in charge of the COVID-19
screening and testing process, as well as having direct contact with the
infection source and playing an important role in the prevention and
treatment of COVID-19. And since the COVID-19 situation differs from
country to country, the impact on the mental health of healthcare
workers varies, including in Vietnam, conducting research on the mental
health status of laboratory technicians in Vietnam can provide new
perspectives and knowledge in the field of mental health care worldwide.
So, during the COVID-19 pandemic, our goal is to conduct theoretical
research and questionnaires on the mental health of laboratory
technicians at the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, the
deputation of the laboratory technicians who participated in the fight
against COVID-19, to identify their mental state, factors influencing
mental health status and make recommendations to improve the mental
health of medical personnel at the National Institute of Hygiene and
Epidemiology.