Professional quality of life and emotional well-being among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran

Author(s):  
Reza Azizkhani ◽  
Farhad Heydari ◽  
Ahmad Sadeghi ◽  
Omid Ahmadi ◽  
Azita Azimi Meibody

Objective: Healthcare workers (HCWs) are among the highest groups impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to analyze professional quality of life (ProQOL) and its association with emotional well-being in HCWs during the pandemic. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on HCWs being in close contact with COVID-19 patients in Iran. The questionnaires assessing ProQOL, emotional well-being, and demographic and occupational characteristics were recruited via email or social media. The ProQOL was used to measure compassion fatigue (CF), burnout (BO) and compassion satisfaction (CS). Results: Among the respondents, 705 HCWs were enrolled, including a higher proportion of physicians 449 (63.7%), females 452 (64.1%), and married 486 (68.9%). The mean of participants’ work experience was 8.41 ± 8.91 years. Almost all of HCWs showed moderate to high levels of CS (98.3%). Also, most of HCWs showed a moderate level of CF (96.3%), and the majority of them (76.6%) had a moderate level of BO. There were significant differences in the duration of contact with COVID-19 patients for all three components of ProQOL and emotional well-being score. Women had a higher level of BO than men (P=0.003). CS was significantly higher in married HCWs than in singles (P=0.007). Pearson correlation coefficient showed that CS had a negative relationship with CF and BO. However, there was a direct correlation between emotional well-being and the CS. Conclusion: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Iranian HCWs showed to have moderate to high levels of CS, and a moderate level of both CF and BO, and showed that emotional well-being had a direct correlation with CS.

Author(s):  
Noemí Sansó ◽  
Laura Galiana ◽  
Amparo Oliver ◽  
Macià Tomás-Salvá ◽  
Gabriel Vidal-Blanco

Background: Dealing with suffering, grief, and death on a daily basis, together with the particular working conditions, may produce high levels of burnout in nurses, and hinder their well-being. The purpose of this research is to study the effect of self-care and self-compassion on nurses’ professional quality of life and well-being. Methods: The research had a cross-sectional design, used correlational methodology and a structural equation model was hypothesized. Along the study, 210 nurses from the Healthcare Public System of the Balearic Islands, participated. The study took place from June to September 2018. Results: The hypothesized model showed an overall adequate fit. Practice environment predicted both self-care and self-compassion, whereas nursing stress did not. Self-care and self-compassion predicted nurses’ professional quality of life, whereas the practice environment and nursing stress were not predictors. Finally, professional quality of life showed a positive relationship with life satisfaction. Conclusions: The study presents a comprehensive structural equation model in which self-care and self-compassion are the best predictors of nurses’ professional quality of life. A direct relation of professional quality of life and nurses’ well-being has also been found, while controlling for the effects of nurses’ practice environment and stress.


Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 515
Author(s):  
María Elena Cuartero-Castañer ◽  
Paula Hidalgo-Andrade ◽  
Ana J. Cañas-Lerma

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of healthcare workers and their professional quality of life. This quantitative cross-sectional study aims at exploring the professional quality of life, work engagement, and self-care of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ecuador. A convenience sample of 117 participants completed an online voluntary and anonymous survey between April and July 2020. It contained a sociodemographic section, the Professional Quality of Life questionnaire V, the work engagement scale, and the scale of self-care behaviors for clinical psychologists. Results show that healthcare workers have an average quality of life with high levels of compassion satisfaction and average levels of compassion fatigue and burnout. Data also indicate that the sample frequently engaged in self-care practices and had high levels of work engagement. The regression analyses reveal that gender, the number of patients per week, the perceived fairness of the salary, among other variables are possible predictors of professional quality of life, frequency of self-care practices, and engagement. This study contributes to the understanding of these variables among healthcare professionals in Ecuador. These results should be considered when planning policies and prevention intervention efforts to promote professionals’ wellbeing.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian Zhou ◽  
Xinping Zhang

Abstract BackgroundAppropriate hand hygiene behavior is much crucial during COVID-19 pandemic, which is influenced by workload, mental health and professional quality of life. The increasing workload, worse mental health and negative professional quality of life are severe challenges for healthcare workers, whereas the evidence of mechanism between them and hand hygiene behavior are limited. This study aimed to understand and model how HCWs’ hand hygiene behaviors were influenced by workload, mental health and professional quality of life.MethodsA total of 1,734 healthcare workers were investigated, covering self-reported hand hygiene behavior, mental health, workload, professional quality of life and socio-demographic characteristics. Structural equation modelling was conducted to confirm interrelationships and parameters among the variables.Findings The final model had a good fit (CFI=0.980; TLI=0.941; RMSEA=0.055). Higher workload was linked to worse mental health (β = 0.165, p < 0.001) and higher burnout (β = 0.183, p < 0.001). Worse mental health was linked to higher burnout (β = 0.339, p < 0.001). The higher burnout was associated with worse self-reported hand hygiene behavior (β = -0.302, p < 0.001).ConclusionWorkload is positively associated with mental health and burnout; mental health is positively related to burnout; burnout is negatively associated with hand hygiene behavior. Thus, hand hygiene behavior can be promoted by the strategy to decrease the workload, burnout and enhance mental health.


2021 ◽  
pp. e20200144
Author(s):  
Vanessa I. Rohlf ◽  
Rebekah Scotney ◽  
Holly Monaghan ◽  
Pauleen Bennett

Working in the veterinary profession can be both stressful and rewarding. High workloads, long work hours, emotionally charged interactions with clients, and exposure to animal suffering and participation in euthanasia place many at risk of compassion fatigue, which then threatens their professional quality of life (ProQOL). Despite this risk, many veterinary professionals choose to stay within the profession. This study explores personal and organizational factors predicting compassion satisfaction (CS), burnout, and secondary traumatic stress (STS) in veterinary professionals, and the extent to which these aspects of ProQOL are linked with intentions to leave the profession. Regression results show that personal factors accounted for 31.1% of the variance in CS, 45.3% in burnout, and 33.8% in STS. Organizational factors significantly accounted for 33.3% of the variance in CS, 47.9% in burnout, and 32.7% in STS. Together, ProQOL accounted for 28.9% and 16.0% of the variance in intentions to leave one’s current role and to leave the profession altogether, respectively. These results suggest that both personal and organizational factors play a role in veterinary professionals’ ProQOL and highlight the importance of promoting CS and managing burnout and STS for the purpose of fostering veterinary staff well-being and retention.


2018 ◽  
Vol 159 (35) ◽  
pp. 1441-1449 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrienne Kegye ◽  
Szabolcs Takács ◽  
Borbála Ries ◽  
Ágnes Zana ◽  
Katalin Hegedűs

Abstract: Introduction: The Professional Quality of Life Scale, measuring the quality of professional life, has been developed to examine the positive and negative changes in the work of those who have undergone extremely stressful experiences. The quality of life of the personnel of palliative-hospice teams may be influenced physically as well as emotionally by their every-day experiences of suffering, death, dying and the patients’ traumas. Aim: The aim of the study was the examination of the psychometric features and factor structure of the Hungarian version of the Professional Quality of Life Scale questionnaire, which can measure compassion fatigue and satisfaction, secondary traumatisation and burnout. Our long-term objective is the development of formative and intervention strategies for hospice workers in order to increase their satisfaction, physical and mental well-being and their willingness to work in hospice. Method: The cross-sectional, questionnaire study was made with hospice workers. The questionnaires were available in an anonym, printed form. We used the Hungarian versions of the Shortened Maastricht Vital Exhaustion Questionnaire and of the Shortened Beck Depression Scale, of the CES-D Depression Scale and of the Shortened WHO General Well-Being Scale to validate. Statistical analysis: IBM SPSS 23.0© software was used for the analysis. To explore the factor structure of the measurement scale, explorative factor analysis was made (analysis of the main component, Varimax rotation); subsequently, 4 scales were prepared the Cronbach-alpha values of which were suitable for further examination. Results: 188 questionnaires were sent back (female 86.2%, male 13.8%); the majority work as nurses and in home hospice care (94 people). The inner consistency of the created 4 scales is acceptable according to the Cronbach-alpha values. The inner consistency of the questions regarding burnout is low. The correlation of our measurement scales with the standardised scales for outer validity has sufficient strength and direction. Conclusions: Our questionnaire can measure the phenomena under examination according to the expected values, with suitable consistency on the basis of the inner and outer indicators. Orv Hetil. 2018; 159(35): 1441–1449.


2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 442-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tali Samson ◽  
Pesach Shvartzman

ABSTRACTBackground:Exposure to the death and dying of others is an anxiety-provoking condition that can contribute to psychological stress. However, the results of empirical studies that evaluated work-related outcomes among physicians and nurses with repeated exposure to dying patients are not consistent.Objective:Our aim was to evaluate whether a high level of exposure to death and dying (LED) can increase the risk for poor professional quality of life (ProQoL) in most healthcare workers, but it can also improve ProQoL in a subset of healthcare workers with specific characteristics.Method:We employed a cross-sectional survey designed to better understand the role of LED as a predictor of ProQoL among healthcare workers.Setting and Participants:Comparison of physicians and nurses with high LED (home-based palliative care units) with a matched group of physicians and nurses with low LED (primary care units) and evaluation of possible interaction effects among LED, death anxiety (DA), and engagement as predictors of ProQoL.Results:The final sample included 110 questionnaires from the high-LED group (response rate = 39%) and 131 from the low-LED (response rate = 24%) group. Workers with high LED reported an increased level of compassion satisfaction (CS) and low to moderate levels of burnout (BU) and secondary traumatic stress (STS), with no significant differences with respect to other healthcare providers. Although levels of CS, STS, and BU did not differ between groups, a univariate MANOVA revealed that the interaction effect of LED × Engagement reduced levels of CS and that the interaction effect of LED × DA increased STS among workers with high LED.Significance of results:LED was significantly correlated with ProQoL among healthcare workers with high LED due to the reported interaction effect. These findings imply, for the first time, that there is a possible correlation between engagement and the risk for poor ProQoL among workers with high LED. Further research is essential to gain a better understanding of this issue.


2022 ◽  
Vol 226 (1) ◽  
pp. S703-S704
Author(s):  
Ana M. Angarita ◽  
Vanessa Short ◽  
Neera Goyal ◽  
Kim McLaughlin ◽  
Lindsey Minion ◽  
...  

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