Comparing the Need for Recovery in the Operating Room Practitioners with and Without Covid-19 Infection History

Background: Healthcare staff are at the heart of the covid-19 pandemic and play an important role in controlling this disease. Operating room practitioners could be contaminated by a coronavirus, which imposes a high pressure on them, affecting their need for recovery from work. This study aimed to compare the need for recovery in the operating room practitioners with and without covid-19 infection history.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the operating room department of a public hospital on 217 operating room practitioners, including Operating room technicians, anaesthesiologists, and service staff. The data collection tools were a demographics questionnaire and the need for recovery scale. Descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, and oneway ANOVA were used for data analysis.Results: T he m ean a nd s tandard d eviation o f t he n eed f or recovery score in the studied population were 71.30±21.40. The practitioners with covid-19 infection history had a significantly higher need for recovery (P=0.001) than those without covid-19 history. In addition, the service staff had a higher percentage of covid-19 infection and had more need for recovery than operating room technicians (P=0.014).Conclusion: The operating room practitioners with a history of covid-19 infection had a significantly higher need for recovery than those without a history of infection. Therefore, protecting the operating room practitioners against covid-19 infection is the first step in preventing the excessive need for recovery levels. In addition, increasing the number of operating room staff, reducing the number of working hours, and paying more attention to their work-life quality can help reduce their need for recovery.