The Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Anxiety Levels of Internal Medicine Physicians and Practice of Internal Medicine Clinics

Abstract

Aim: The aim of the study is to determine the anxiety levels of internal medicine specialists and to investigate the effect of pandemic on practise of internal medicine clinics in the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The Clinical Activities Scale developed as data collection tools by the researchers and Beck Anxiety Scale were used in the study. The research was carried out on Internal Medicine Physicians using the online survey method. Descriptive statistical methods, significance tests, correlation and regression analysis were used in the analysis of the data. Results: 93 internal medicine specialists participated in the study. Changes in clinical practice of internal medicine physicians are as follows; 37.7% of them do not want to perform the physical examination, 43% of the physicians postponed the research of patients who needed an examination, 64.5% of their chronic patients did not come to their routine controls and 50.5% of the physicians had a disruption in the follow-up of chronic patients. Clinical approach of physicians working in pandemic hospital; clinical approach of physicians encountering covid-19 patients and the clinical approach of physicians treating patients with covid-19 were more affected by COVID-19. Anxiety was detected in 60.2% of internal medicine physicians. A weak, linear relationship was found between clinical functioning and back anxiety factor at p= 0.001 error level. Conclusion: During the pandemic it was found that the examination of patients requiring advanced examination and follow-up of chronic patients were affected. In addition, the level of anxiety was found to be high in internal medicine physicians