Occupational psychology and medicine for work-related stress prevention: A protocol administered in times of COVID-19 to monitor psycho-physical symptoms

Preventing stress is a primary goal for organizations. To achieve this goal in an effective way, integration between the three levels of intervention — primary, secondary, and tertiary — and between different professional figures is fundamental. A protocol (named OPhy-WRS protocol) has been implemented to allow occupational physicians (OPhys) and occupational psychologists (OPsys) to cooperate for secondary and tertiary prevention. The protocol aims to measure anxiety, emotional, and somatic symptoms, and sleep disorders, as well as behavioral responses that can be traced back to work-related stress. The protocol consists in a worksheet compiled by the OPhy as a result of a structured interview to be conducted during healthcare surveillance. Prior to the administration of the protocol, in the perspective of multidisciplinary cooperation, OPhys received training by OPsys. The physicians administered the protocol to 804 employees in a big Italian company. Five hundred eighty-six employees were interviewed before the pandemic outburst, the remaining 218 after March 2020: This condition created two subgroups (pre-pandemic and pandemic) that could be compared. The data obtained are useful to isolate clusters and workers that need further investigation and closer monitoring by occupational physicians. The comparison between the two groups shows a worsened scenario in terms of stress symptoms.