Peritraumatic Distress of COVID-19 on Physicians in Bangladesh: Implications and Policy Recommendations

COVID-19 pandemic has been an ultimate test of resource management for any governance, especially in the healthcare system. Bangladesh, being a developing country and with very limited resources, is fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The frontline workers, especially the physicians and nurses are going through immense physical and psychological stress during the pandemic. Social unawareness, the absence of strict preventive policies, increasing workload, and the lack of resource management are making the frontline healthcare workers extremely vulnerable to COVID-19. In this paper, we present the outcome of our study on peritraumatic distress of COVID-19 among physicians in Bangladesh. Based on the user study, we have identified a number of key factors behind the peritraumatic distress and psychological stress caused by COVID-19. Our study shows, more than 78% respondents are suffering from peritraumatic psychological distress. We also recommended some very important and yet easy to implement policies to reduce the peritraumatic stress of the physicians of Bangladesh. These policy recommendations were a result of the survey analysis and the suggestions from the COVID-19 designated physicians.