How Does the Assessment of Work Organization during the COVID-19 Pandemic Relate to Changes in the Well-Being of Health System Workers?

Loreta Kubilienė,Nida Žemaitienė,Vilma Miglinė,Aušra Griciūtė,Aurima Stankūnienė,Milda Kukulskienė

doi:10.3390/ijerph18158202

Abstract

In the case of various emergencies, especially pandemics, healthcare workers are faced with disproportionate pressures. Organizational support plays a significant role in protecting the psychological and physical health of healthcare workers. This interdisciplinary research aims to determine how changes in the physical and psychological well-being of healthcare and pharmacy workers during the first wave of the COVID-19 lockdown are related to work organization factors that support safety and stability. A quantitative research strategy was applied in the research. Data from an electronic survey assessed the changes in the physical and psychological well-being of healthcare and pharmacy workers during the lockdown period and the organizational factors supporting safety and stability. The sample of the quantitative research consisted of 967 employees of healthcare institutions and pharmacies in Lithuania. This research broadens the concept of organizational factors and provides data on their interaction with the changes of employee well-being indicators in a pandemic situation. It was found that positive changes in the evaluation of physical as well as psychological well-being during the COVID-19 lockdown could be consistently predicted by all the analyzed safety and stability supporting organizational factors that were found to be associated with subjective physical well-being and psychological well-being even when adjusting for the effect of socio-demographic factors (gender, age, work field, and specialty). The identification and proper management of organizational factors was significant for the psychological and physical well-being of healthcare workers during the lockdown period. It was found that all estimates of safety and stability supporting organizational factors during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown were positively related and could act as protective factors to the subjective physical and psychological well-being of healthcare and pharmacy workers.

Highlights

Provided the survey data—a similar ratio of gender percentage was observed in the groups of physical and psychological well-being
During the first lockdown from 16 March to 16 June in 2020, the healthcare and pharmacy workers who participated in the research mentioned that they had felt changes in their physical and psychological well-being: 23% (N = 212) of the research participants stated that their physical well-being had decreased since the beginning of the lockdown and even 38% (N = 351) of the research participants reported a decrease in psychological well-being
According to the research data, we found that healthcare and pharmacy workers with a better assessment of physical and psychological well-being during the first lockdown tended to better assess each of the analyzed safety and stability supporting organizational indicators in the work environment

Summary

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic requested quick and effective organizational solutions: decisions taken at both the state and internal organizational levels correlated with the effectiveness of pandemic management [1,2]. A very important aspect of managing the pandemic caused changes in work organization change strategy. It is very important to learn a lesson, have a vision, pay attention to the preparation, and implement a change plan strategy, because clear preventive steps and preparation for various situations contribute to the effective functioning of employees in the organization.

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion