A Cross-Sectional Examination of the Mental Wellbeing, Coping and Quality of Working Life in Health and Social Care Workers in the UK at Two Time Points of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Paula Mcfadden,Jermaine Ravalier,Ruth D Neill,Jana Ross,Patricia Nicholl,Jill Manthorpe,Patricia Gillen,Denise Currie,Daniel Mcfadden,John Moriarty,Heike Schroder,John Mallett

doi:10.3390/epidemiologia2030017

Abstract

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve around the world, it is important to examine its effect on societies and individuals, including health and social care (HSC) professionals. The aim of this study was to compare cross-sectional data collected from HSC staff in the UK at two time points during the COVID-19 pandemic: Phase 1 (May-July 2020) and Phase 2 (November 2020-January 2021). The HSC staff surveyed consisted of nurses, midwives, allied health professionals, social care workers and social workers from across the UK (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland). Multiple regressions were used to examine the effects of different coping strategies and demographic and work-related variables on participants' wellbeing and quality of working life to see how and if the predictors changed over time. An additional multiple regression was used to directly examine the effects of time (Phase 1 vs. Phase 2) on the outcome variables. Findings suggested that both wellbeing and quality of working life deteriorated from Phase 1 to Phase 2. The results have the potential to inform interventions for HSC staff during future waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, other infectious outbreaks or even other circumstances putting long-term pressures on HSC systems.

Highlights

The outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) created a worldwide pandemic following its first detection in Wuhan, China, in December 2019
Trust survey conducted by Shannon et al [46] and a study by Siddquari et al [48] reported that anxiety and depression in health and social care professionals were higher than in comparison to that reported in China [11] or the general United Kingdom (UK) population [47]. These findings have demonstrated that when the COVID-19 pandemic begins to decrease, several health and social care professionals will have suffered a psychological impact from their work and its constantly changing high pressure demands
The research explores the impact of providing health and social care during the COVID-19 pandemic on nurses, midwives, allied health professionals (AHPs), social care workers and social workers in the UK working in a range of settings such as hospitals, care homes, community and day services

Summary

Introduction

The outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) created a worldwide pandemic following its first detection in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. While considerable efforts are being made, such as lockdowns, social distancing, good hygiene and vaccination programmes promoted through mainstream and social media, the world will continue to be negatively impacted [4,5,6]. This pandemic continues to impact health and social care services but is still affecting the mental wellbeing and quality of life across the population, which may have a long-lasting and detrimental effect [6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]

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Conclusion