**1. Introduction**

Before the end of 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) was informed of pneumonia cases discovered in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, which was named the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) [1].

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization declared coronavirus (COVID-19) a pandemic, which means a global disease outbreak threatening the world [2,3] After the World Health Organization announced the pandemic, Saudi Arabia adopted response plans to contain the virus [4]. From 2 March 2020, to 2 March 2021, Saudi Arabia confirmed 377,700 cases of COVID-19 with 6500 deaths [5].

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has implemented many precautionary measures to prevent the spread and transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, such as preventing mass gatherings, stopping school proceedings, stopping Hajj and Umrah, introducing curfews, and closing places to counter the increase in the transmission of infection [6–8]. The country has converted more than 119 health centers to receive only those infected with infection symptoms; they cover all regions and cities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and receive citizens, residents, and immigrants into the country. These clinics, known as Fever Clinics, work to contain the coronavirus's spread among society members [9].

COVID-19 is the world's biggest public health threat. The severity of the disease, the lack of evidence of the effectiveness of potential therapeutic agents and the available vaccines, and the lack of presumed immunity in the population leave everyone vulnerable to infection [10,11]. Additionally, the rapid spread of COVID-19, its health implications, the wide coverage that this disease gets in the press and social media, and the horrific statistics associated with it may lead to an increase in anxiety levels and the level of adverse effects on mental health among members of society [12,13].

**Citation:** Alyahya, S.; AboGazalah, F. Work-Related Stressors among the Healthcare Professionals in the Fever Clinic Centers for Individuals with Symptoms of COVID-19. *Healthcare* **2021**, *9*, 548. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/healthcare9050548

Academic Editor: Manoj Sharma

Received: 7 April 2021 Accepted: 29 April 2021 Published: 8 May 2021

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**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

A number of members in the society have been affected by different psychological influences, including health care workers, who are considered one of the essential elements in protecting community members from having the virus [12,14,15]. Several studies revealed that fear of this novel coronavirus might lead to psychological issues such as stress disorders, anxiety, and depression among individuals [16]. This outbreak is not the first in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, since it has experienced the MERS virus epidemic before. This epidemic spread to the Middle East, affecting health workers and killing some of them, causing many psychological problems such as stress [17–19].

Stress may be affected by many variables related to the professional and social role, such as ambiguity, role conflict, and increased workload [20]. Several studies have found that workload, role ambiguity, and role conflict are factors associated with stress and that these factors degrade employee job satisfaction and performance [21–23]. Based on this, too much stress may negatively affect both the employees' and the organization's work performance.

In contrast, social support is a preventative factor against mental health problems in the workplace [24]. Social support is the care or help that a person can feel, notice, or accept from others. A high social support level can protect someone under stress [25,26]. The more social support the person has or perceives, the more control of the person's stressful situation, leading to improved outcomes associated with it [27,28].

All these factors, including role ambiguity, role conflict, work overload, and social support, may influence the level of stress among health sector workers, especially during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Therefore, to the authors' knowledge, this study is considered the first of its kind. This study seeks to determine the relationship between the variables associated with stress, such as ambiguity and role conflict, workload, and social support, among health sector workers, specifically in health centers called Fever Clinics centers designated to receive those with symptoms of COVID-19 infection in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
