Do we know the psychological well-being of our healthcare staff?

Introduction: In the last few years, psychological distress among the population has increased with serious repercussions for employers (an increase in accidents and absenteeism due to common illnesses, lower productivity, poor quality of services) and for workers' quality of life (physical and psychological problems, low levels of satisfaction, etc.). Health workers are among the collectives most affected by this increase. Numerous studies have been published on burnout syndrome, stressors among health workers, and mobbing, among other phenomena, but data on health workers' perception of their psychological well-being are lacking. Objective: To identify possible cases of minor psychiatric disturbances among health workers. To analyze the sociodemographic and occupational risk factors in workers with psychiatric disturbances. To describe the type of symptoms (somatic, anxiety and insomnia, depression and social dysfunction) in workers with psychiatric alterations. Material and method: We performed a cross-sectional descriptive study in a sample of the health workers in Area 10 of Madrid. Information was gathered through self-administered questionnaires. To measure the response variable (psychological well-being), the 28-item Goldberg General Health Questionnaire was used (GHQ-28). Result: The prevalence of psychological distress for the sample as a whole was 18.2%. Significant differences and scores exceeding the cut-off point indicating vulnerability to psychiatric disturbances were found for the following variables: place of work (hospital), gender (women), age (between 36 and 50 years), professional status (nurse's aide), contract (permanent), shift (rotating), and years of service (between 11 and 15 years). Conclusions: Psychosocial questionnaires should be included in health surveillance. These questionnaires could identify alterations undetected by other measures and would allow appropriate preventive measures to be designed. Greater attention to organizational factors and a culture of "caring for the carer" could help to reduce the growing problem of psychological distress among health workers.