Work-related Challenges Research Articles

The psychological impact, risk factors and coping strategies to COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers in the sub-Saharan Africa: a narrative review of existing literature

BackgroundThe ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the physical and mental health of the general population worldwide, with healthcare workers at particular risk. The pandemic's effect on healthcare workers' mental well-being has been characterized by depression, anxiety, work-related stress, sleep disturbances, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Hence, protecting the mental well-being of healthcare workers (HCWs) is a considerable priority. This review aimed to determine risk factors for adverse mental health outcomes and protective or coping measures to mitigate the harmful effects of the COVID-19 crisis among HCWs in sub-Saharan Africa.MethodsWe performed a literature search using PubMed, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library, and Embase for relevant materials. We obtained all articles published between March 2020 and April 2022 relevant to the subject of review and met pre-defined eligibility criteria. We selected 23 articles for initial screening and included 12 in the final review.ResultA total of 5,323 participants in twelve studies, predominantly from Ethiopia (eight studies), one from Uganda, Cameroon, Mali, and Togo, fulfilled the eligibility criteria. Investigators found 16.3–71.9% of HCWs with depressive symptoms, 21.9–73.5% with anxiety symptoms, 15.5–63.7% experienced work-related stress symptoms, 12.4–77% experienced sleep disturbances, and 51.6–56.8% reported PTSD symptoms. Healthcare workers, working in emergency, intensive care units, pharmacies, and laboratories were at higher risk of adverse mental health impacts. HCWs had deep fear, anxious and stressed with the high transmission rate of the virus, high death rates, and lived in fear of infecting themselves and families. Other sources of fear and work-related stress were the lack of PPEs, availability of treatment and vaccines to protect themselves against the virus. HCWs faced stigma, abuse, financial problems, and lack of support from employers and communities.ConclusionThe prevalence of depression, anxiety, insomnia, and PTSD in HCWs in sub-Saharan Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic has been high. Several organizational, community, and work-related challenges and interventions were identified, including improvement of workplace infrastructures, adoption of correct and shared infection control measures, provision of PPEs, social support, and implementation of resilience training programs. Setting up permanent multidisciplinary mental health teams at regional and national levels to deal with mental health and providing psychological support to HCWs, supported with long-term surveillance, are recommended.

A human centred approach to digital technologies in health care delivery among mothers, children and adolescents

Background:Healthcare outcomes in child, adolescent and maternal in Tanzania are poor, and mostly characterised by fragmentary service provision. In order to address this weakness, digital technologies are sought to be integrated in the milieu of health as they present vast opportunities especially in the ability to improve health information management and coordination. Prior to the design and implementation of the Afya-Tek digital intervention, formative research was carried out to ensure that the solution meets the needs of the users. The formative research aimed to examine: the burden of disease and related health seeking behaviour; workflow procedures and challenges experiencing healthcare actors; adolescent health and health seeking behaviour; and lastly examine technological literacy and perceptions on the use of digital technologies in healthcare delivery. This paper therefore, presents findings from the formative research.Methods:The study employed exploratory design grounded in a qualitative approach. In-depth interview, focus group discussion, participant observation and documentary review methods were used for collecting data at different levels. The analysis was done thematically, whereby meaning was deduced behind the words which the participants used.Results:Findings suggest that the perceived burden of diseases and health seeking behaviour differ across age and social group. Multiple work-related challenges, such as lack of proper mechanism to track referrals and patient’s information were noted across healthcare actors. There was a keen interest in the use of technologies shown by all study participants to improve care coordination and health outcomes among health system actors. Participants shared their views on how they envision the digital system working.Conclusion:The formative research provided insightful background information with regard to the study objectives. The findings are used for informing the subsequent phases of the co-development and implementation of the Afya-Tek digital health intervention; with a view to making it relevant to the needs of those who will use it in the future. As such, the findings have to a large extent met the purpose of the current study by envisaging the best ways to design digital intervention tailored to meet the needs of those who will be using it.

“Systems trauma”: A qualitative study of work-related distress among service providers to people experiencing homelessness in Canada

Service provision to people experiencing homelessness is challenging and stressful work. Yet, there is a dearth of evidence on how the work experiences of service providers contribute to mental health distress and wellness. This qualitative study examined the contributing factors to workplace mental health among service providers to people experiencing homelessness in Canada, with the aim of establishing a causal theory for how work-related challenges cause distress. In-depth interviews were conducted with 40 service providers working in the homeless service, supportive housing, and harm reduction sectors across Canada. Data were analyzed using a grounded theory-informed approach. The workplace mental health of service providers was centred on the concept of “systems trauma,” which refers to the structural and systemic factors that exacerbate the difficulty of service providers’ work, putting them at-risk of work-related mental health distress. “Systems trauma” had multifaceted causes and consequences, as did the organizational- and individual-level factors that protected service providers against its impacts. Overall, the findings highlight how the same sociopolitical context that negatively affects people experiencing homelessness also shapes the workplace mental health of service providers. Supports for managing moral distress, policy and public initiatives to improve the valuation of work with people experiencing homelessness, dedicated funding for workforce development, and further investment in primary and secondary prevention of homelessness are recommended to promote workplace mental health.

Prevalence and Determinants of Return to Work as a Patient-Centered Outcome in Survivors of Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation.

Employment is an important indicator of health and functional recovery for hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) survivors and has significant social and economic impacts. Cancer survivors treated with conventional non-HCT therapy are known to be at a higher risk of unemployment or not returning to work after completion of therapy compared with the control population. However, the literature on return-to-work challenges among HCT survivors remains limited. Here we summarize the evidence on prevalence and determinants of return-to-work challenges among HCT survivors using previously published literature. Findings from previously published research show that return to work or unemployment is a major concern among HCT survivors, especially for allogeneic HCT recipients, and prior studies have identified several modifiable risk factors associated with it. Survivors' post-HCT employment status is significantly associated with quality of life, impacting physical, emotional, social, and financial aspects of their lives. We also highlight the gaps in current knowledge such as limited information on employment outcomes of childhood, adolescent, and young adult HCT survivors; work-related challenges among employed HCT survivors; consequences of work-related challenges; and interventions to improve return to work among HCT survivors. Findings highlighted in this review make a strong case of a multidisciplinary return-to-work support for HCT survivors to properly address their needs.

Towards the Quadruple Aim in permanent supportive housing: A mixed methods study of workplace mental health among service providers.

The Quadruple Aim is a health policy framework with the objective of concurrently improving population health, enhancing the service experience, reducing costs and improving the work-life of service providers. Permanent supportive housing (PSH) is a best practice approach for stably housing people experiencing homelessness who have diverse support needs. Despite the intervention's strong evidence base, little is known about the work-life of PSH providers. This study explored the mental health and work challenges experienced by PSH providers in Canada. Using an explanatory sequential, equally weighted, mixed methods design, 130 PSH providers were surveyed, followed by semi-structured interviews with 18 providers. Quantitative findings showed that 23.1% of PSH providers had high psychological distress. Participants who were younger, spent all or almost all of their time in direct contact with service users and had less social support from coworkers were significantly more likely to have high psychological distress. Three themes were identified from the qualitative analysis that showed how PSH providers experience psychological distress from work-related challenges: (a) Sisyphean Endeavours: 'You Do What You Can', (b) Occupationally Unsupported: 'Everyone Is Stuck in Their Zone' and (c) Wear and Tear of 'Continuous Exposure to Crisis and Chaos'. The themes interacted with systemic (Sisyphean Endeavours) and organisational issues (Occupationally Unsupported), intensifying the emotional burden of day-to-day work, which involved frequent crises and uncertainty (Wear and Tear of 'Continuous Exposure to Crisis and Chaos'). The findings underscore how these challenges threaten providers' wellness at work and have implications for the care provided to service users. Accordingly, the Quadruple Aim is a potentially useful and applicable framework for measuring the performance of PSH programs, which warrants further consideration in research and policy.

The value of visual co-analysis models for an inclusive citizen science approach. Inspired by co-creation methods from design thinking

Citizen science entails the collaboration of citizens and scientists. The process of this collaboration can take on many forms: identifying a research question, collecting data, analysing data to support or refute a hypothesis, monitoring environmental or health conditions for management or policy development. Citizen science propagates the inclusion of citizens not only as participants engaged in the design research process but also involved in designing the research process itself. In order to address issues of a citizen science approach, it is important that potentially everyone can contribute. Therefore, methodologies need to be fine-tuned to improve the involvement of non-professional researchers in the research process. Co-creation methods may be an effective methodology for doing so and bring different types of knowledge (e.g., insights, experiences, data, information) to the ‘table of science’ and, ultimately, improve the constructive exchange and evaluation of this knowledge. This article describes the process of a pilot where professional researchers, informal caregivers, and human resource advisors use visual co-analysis to create a research plan. For the framing of this research a theme was proposed which focused on the possibility of technological support for work-related challenges experienced by informal caregivers working in healthcare. Five semi-structured interviews were conducted by researchers with informal caregiver in the first phase of ‘Empathize’ within design thinking (i.e., human centred approach). The goal of the interviews was to understand and relate to the caregiver’s perception of their current informal care situation (e.g., balance, bottlenecks, opportunities, well-being). Quotes selected from theses interviews were the input for a bottom-up methodology for citizen science using the KJ Method (i.e., affinity diagramming) as a form of visual analysis model. The (co-)analysis was done by the team of caregivers, HR advisors and researchers using the online tool Miro. This article aims to describe how the use of visual analysis models as a group consensus technique can facilitate the involvement of non-professional researchers and thereby support the establishment of inclusiveness of a citizen science approach. In other words, to obtain equal collaboration, an inclusive citizen science approach must allow communication about, and analysis of data by all participants, instead of non-professional researchers merely being presented with the finalized results of the analysis phase within research. An inclusive citizen science approach might lead to a period of uncertainty where problem definitions, research questions or predefined categories posed early on are (re-)assessed. However, this bottom-up approach will ultimately lead to a positive impact in finding the root problem for innovative scientific outcomes. Together, the pilot study and descriptive review offer guidance for understanding visual co-analysis models as the starting point for an inclusive citizen science approach.

A pastoral care of female teachers facing work-related challenges – A South African view

In the last few years, South Africa experienced a mass resignation of teachers, specifically public school teachers. This could have been triggered by the heavy workload and intimidation and incidents of school violence that posed a threat to female teachers and their environment. This had a negative impact on the education sector which plays an important role in shaping the future of the country through educating and training children. This is a serious challenge for the education sector and requires urgent attention, not only from people in the teaching profession, but also from the church through pastoral work. The author is of the opinion that happiness in the workplace plays a pivotal role in a person’s progress and production; if there is nothing that makes a person happy and there is a lack of excitement, it might lead to resignation. The objective of this article was to determine some challenges leading to the unhappiness of teachers in public schools, specifically female teachers. The research concentrated on some practical theological guidelines on what could be done to deal with the challenges. Although teachers from both gender groups resigned, this research specifically focused on the challenges of female teachers as a result of gender inequality.Contributions: New knowledge towards promoting the rights of female teachers in context of gender equality. Researchers on gender as well as female teachers who were oppressed in their work environment will begin to understand women’s right as a human right.

Who should i talk to? - informal workplace learning among teachers in police education

ABSTRACT Previous research has shown that teachers’ informal learning in social networks is of great importance for their professional development. Participation in social networks is often characterised by knowledge exchange between employees with the aim of dealing with work-related challenges or improving the work practice. In this study, attention was focused on teachers at a Swedish police education unit and their participation in work-related social networks. The findings were based on two data collections, logbooks of social networking interactions and follow-up interviews with 23 teachers. The purpose was to explore who they talked to, for what purpose and what means of communication they used, and the analysis included mapping of their interactions in social networks and a qualitative analysis of their narratives. Overall, the study shows that the teachers’ participation in social networks was extensive and valuable for their professional development as teachers. Furthermore, the analysis shows that the teachers’ interactions in social networks are usually intentional and based on knowledge needs related to pedagogical aspects of teaching, that the composition of course content and teaching teams can affect teachers’ readiness to participate in several different networks and that the type of knowledge need affects which means of communication are used.

Family supportive supervisor behaviors: lessons from research

PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic impacted the workplace in significant ways, creating changes in the daily work routines of individuals globally, many of which are likely to be permanent. Women, in particular, were affected by increased childcare responsibilities and faced with decisions about the future of their careers. The purpose of this practitioner article is to present an overview of work-related challenges and opportunities resulting from COVID-19, introduces the concept of family supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB), and shares ideas for application.Design/methodology/approachThe concept of FSSB offers insights into the role of supervisors in the adoption of family-friendly approaches that not only mitigate the challenges women, and parents in general, face in the workplace but offers organizations the opportunity to assess the degree to which these practices are present and adopt relevant training and policies. The paper examines the literature on FSSB.FindingsThe review identifies ways in which organizations can apply FSSB to support women (and all parents) in the workplace. These include a better understanding of the supervisor role, the need to examine policies and practice and make supervisors accountable and direction for FSSB training.Originality/valueThe paper shares key outcomes of FSSB and provides practical ways for its implementation by leaders and managers. It links the challenges and opportunities of COVID-19 to enhanced FSSB practices.

A Creative Concept to empower office workers addressing work-related health risks.

Among office workers, the sedentary work-related health challenges are mainly associated with the fact that they often sit for up to 10 hr a working day. Members of the Research Group conducted a research program to assist the office workers of an international telecommunication company's affiliate in Budapest to enhance comfort levels in the office work environment. The data collection included a Comfort Survey to reveal employees' sense of comfort related to Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) components and the characteristics of employees' feelings and behavior during working hours. Moreover, a measurement of IEQ components was carried out and focused on air quality, lighting, sound exposure and thermal comfort parameters. Based on the survey's results, a Creative Concept was developed to empower office workers to address work-related health risks, notably sedentary work risks. The Creative Concept consists of five elements: a Comfort Map as an IEQ-related application to select a suitable workplace, redesigning concepts to increase the use of lounges, a newly developed work pad to improve personal hygiene in an office environment, recommendations for creating a health-enabling work environment and a workplace training program to raise health awareness. After validation, our Creative Concept can function as a multi-component workplace health promotion method to offer assistance for a wide variety of offices to create a health-enabling working environment.

Experiences and Psychosocial Difficulties of Frontline Health Care Workers Struggling With COVID-19 in Turkey: A Qualitative Study.

AimThis study was performed to explore the experiences and the psychosocial difficulties faced by nurses and physicians involved in the treatment and care for COVID-19 adult patients in the intensive care unit.MethodThe interpretative phenomenological approach was used, and the data were gathered between June and July, 2020 in Rize using face-to-face interviews. The sample consisted of 10 nurses and 5 physicians. The thematic analysis was utilized to analyze the data. The Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) were followed in the study.ResultsThe experiences of nurses and physicians were categorized under three themes and subcategories. The theme of “Going Through Psychosocial Changes” was divided into decreased emotional well-being and experiencing social changes, the theme of “Work-Related Challenges” was divided into losing the routines and economic concerns, and the theme of “Felt Gains” was divided into realizing one’s worth and increased motivation. ConclusionThe study revealed that nurses and physicians are supported, respected, and described as heroes by Turkish society. However, they are psychologically and socially adversely affected, they display negative and positive emotions, and experience psychological growth. In addition, nurses complain about insufficient and unfair payment. Despite all these challenges, nurses and physicians continue to work with increasing emotional resistance. It is recommended to be aware of the problems that they experience during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, protect their mental health, provide adequate economic support, especially for nurses, and take necessary measures by collecting data that may be a guide for subsequent outbreaks.

Exploring the experiences, psychological well-being and needs of frontline healthcare workers of government hospitals in India: a qualitative study

The present study aims to understand the experiences, challenges, psychological well-being and needs of clinical and non-clinical government healthcare workers (HCWs) during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Hyderabad-Karnataka (H-K) region. This qualitative study used purposive sampling method to recruit 221 HCWs working in the H-K region government hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with those HCWs who agreed to participate. The data analyzed using conventional content analysis revealed three main themes: (1) experiences and challenges faced by HCWs; (2) psychological well-being and coping strategies used by HCWs; and (3) experience of and need for social support. The main findings of the current study are as follows: The HCWs experienced fear and apprehension during the early stages of the pandemic, but gradually, their fears reduced, and they perceived the situation to be the “new normal”. They experienced work-related (scarcity of resources, problems with PPE, communication issues, violence, and stigma) and family-related (fear of infecting family members, choosing work over family, inability to undertake family roles) challenges while serving during the pandemic. They reported increased psychological issues (psychological distress, experience of loss, and feelings of guilt and helplessness). Conversely, they reported a need for emotional stability. The HCWs reported using adaptive (emotion-focused, problem-focused, and religious) and maladaptive (avoidance and substance abuse) coping strategies to cope with these challenges and psychological problems. They also sought social support (from family, friends, colleagues, and superiors) and raised the need for organizational, personal, and societal support to cope with the pandemic. The HCWs experienced physical and psychological burnout, especially from stretching beyond the assigned roles due to a shortage of resources and workforce. However, amidst juggling with work and family responsibilities, HCWs were found to be emotionally stable and reported to have a positive outlook in general. Besides, emphasizing the regulation of policies for meeting their primary needs, they stressed the need for professional psychological services with need-based intervention strategies.

Role of Competency Environment based Empirical Study and Education on Employees Retention and Psychological Analysis

A healthy relationship between Employer and employee psychology is a critical factor for any successful business. Both Employer and employees are responsible for attaining the company’s goal and vision, for which an empirical study is performed. Employee turnover is a significant problem faced by many organizations. Employee turnover is a major issue in the competitive Automobile sector. This research study attempts to assess and evaluate the role of competency management & its impact on the work environment & work-related challenges and its effects on employee retention in large-scale automobile & ancillary companies in Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh. Empirical and quantitative research would use a mixed research approach, and the data were collected from 82 Managers and 116 Engineers of various automobile companies & ancillary companies in Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh. Competency management positively affects work enrichment& enlargement, which is positively related to work autonomy and participative decision making. Work autonomy and participative decisions are making lead to employee psychology retention. This education can be useful for future employee maintenance in business applications.

Ethical challenges and moral distress among field epidemiologists

BackgroundAs ‘disease detectives’ and directors of public health programs, field epidemiologists play essential roles in protecting public health. Although ethical issues receive considerable attention in medical and research settings, less is known about ethical challenges faced by field epidemiologists in public health programs. Similarly, little is known about moral distress among field epidemiologists, i.e., situations in which they are constrained from acting on what they know to be morally right. Moral distress is strongly associated with empathy fatigue, burnout, reduced job retention, and disengagement. To better understand ethics training needs for field epidemiologists, in February 2019, members of TEPHIConnect, an online and mobile networking platform for Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) alumni, were invited to participate in an anonymous survey about ethical challenges and moral distress.ResultsAmong 126 respondents from 54 countries, leading causes of ethical dilemmas included inadequate informed consent (61%), inequitable allocation of resources (49%), and conflicts of interest (43%). These occur primarily in settings of disease outbreaks (60%); research (55%); and public health programs at the state, province, or national level (45%) or community level (43%). Work-related moral distress was reported by 91% of respondents, including 26% who experience it “frequently” or “almost always.” Field epidemiologists working in low- and low-middle income countries were more likely to report moral distress “frequently” or “almost always” than those in higher-income countries (33.0% vs 9.1%, P = 0.006). The most common perceived contributors to moral distress included excessive stress and work demands (30%) and inadequate support from leaders (25%).ConclusionsField epidemiologists face significant work-related ethical challenges, which are endemic to public health and political systems. A substantial proportion of field epidemiologists also experience some degree of moral distress, often in association with these challenges. These findings indicate an unmet need among field epidemiologists for support in navigating ethical challenges, as well as for resources to address the human and professional consequences of moral distress.

Job satisfaction and potential opportunities for career growth among hotel employees: The case of Oman

As with other Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Oman is attempting to increase the number of citizens employed in its hospitality sector. Although several government initiatives have been launched to address this issue, the number of Omanis employed in the hospitality sector continues to be low. The current study aims to determine the causes for this disinterest within the hotel industry. Under the premise that the industry’s negative image stems from the experiences of existing Omani hotel employees, the current study investigates their job satisfaction, work-related challenges, and commitment to hotel employment. A mixed methods study was conducted among Omani employees of four- and five-star hotels in Muscat using focus-groups and a structured questionnaire. The results reveal strong dissatisfaction with financial compensation and the limited growth opportunities. The authors conclude that government intervention is required and, beyond improving entrance to hospitality employment, local authorities should be concerned with the growth and development of employees. Further theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Work-Related Health and Safety Challenges of Rice Irrigation Farmworkers

Workers in the agricultural sector face several work-related health and safety challenges, similar to what workers in other high-risk sectors experience. However, there is a dearth of research efforts in the informal agricultural sector regarding the health and safety of farmworkers. The present paper explored the common work-related health and safety challenges that rice farmworkers in major irrigation schemes in southern Ghana experienced. The paper also explored the attitude and extent of personal protective equipment usage among rice farmworkers. Data were obtained from 11 key informants selected from three irrigation schemes and transcribed verbatim for analysis. Analysis of the data involved theoretical thematic analysis of Braun and Clarke. The analysis showed that rice farmworkers experienced several work-related health issues, injuries, and disorders, including cutlass injuries, lower back disorders, and malaria. It was also observed that the farmers were not using appropriate personal protective equipment. The implications of the findings were discussed and practical recommendations were made to help improve the safety and well-being of rice farmworkers.

Insights Gained From a Re-analysis of Five Improvement Cases in Healthcare Integrating System Dynamics Into Action Research.

Healthcare is complex with multi-professional staff and a variety of patient care pathways. Time pressure and minimal margins for errors, as well as tension between hierarchical power and the power of the professions, make it challenging to implement new policies or procedures. This paper explores five improvement cases in healthcare integrating system dynamics (SD) into action research (AR), aiming to identify methodological aspects of how this integration supported multi-professional groups to discover workable solutions to work-related challenges. This re-analysis was conducted by a multi-disciplinary research group using an iterative abductive approach applying qualitative analysis to structure and understand the empirical material. Frameworks for consultancy assignments/client projects were used to identify case project stages (workflow steps) and socio-analytical questions were used to bridge between the AR and SD perspectives. All studied cases began with an extensive AR-inspired inventory of problems/objectives and ended with an SD-facilitated experimental phase where mutually agreed solutions were tested in silico. Time was primarily divided between facilitated group discussions during meetings and modelling work between meetings. Work principles ensured that the voice of each participant was heard, inspired engagement, interaction, and exploratory mutual learning activities. There was an overall pattern of two major divergent and convergent phases, as each group moved towards a mutually developed point of reference for their problem/objective and solution, a case-specific multi-professional knowledge repository. By integrating SD into AR, more favourable outcomes for the client organization may be achieved than when applying either approach in isolation. We found that SD provided a platform that facilitated experiential learning in the AR process. The identified results were calibrated to local needs and circumstances, and compared to traditional top-down implementation for change processes, improved the likelihood of sustained actualisation.

A network of empirical ethics teams embedded in research programmes across multiple sites: opportunities and challenges in contributing to COVID-19 research and responses

Covid-19 continues to teach the global community important lessons about preparedness for research and effective action to respond to emerging health threats. We share the COVID-19 experiences of a pre-existing cross-site ethics network-the Global Health Bioethics Network-which brings together researchers and practitioners from Africa, Europe, and South east Asia. We describe the network and its members and activities, and the work-related opportunities and challenges we faced over a one-year period during the pandemic. We highlight the value of having strong and long-term empirical ethics networks embedded across diverse research institutions to be able to: 1) identify and share relevant ethics challenges and research questions and ways of ’doing research’; 2) work with key stakeholders to identify appropriate ways to contribute to the emerging health issue response – e.g. through ethics oversight, community engagement, and advisory roles at different levels; and 3) learn from each other and from diverse contexts to advocate for positive change at multiple levels. It is our view that being both embedded and long term offers particular opportunities in terms of deep institutional and contextual knowledge and relationships with and access to a wide range of stakeholders in place. Being networked offers opportunities to draw upon a wide range of expertise and perspectives operating at multiple levels, and to bring together internal and external perspectives (i.e. different positionalities). Long term funding means that the people and resources are in place and ready to respond in a timely way. However, many tensions and challenges remain, including difficulties in negotiating power and politics regarding roles that researchers and research institutions play in an emergency, and the position of empirical ethics activities in programmes of research more specifically. We discuss some of these tensions and challenges, and consider the implications for our own and similar networks in future.

Does direct farm marketing fulfill its promises? analyzing job satisfaction among direct-market farmers in Canada

Short food supply chains have become the focus of considerable research in the last two decades. However, studies so far remain highly localized, and claims about the economic and social advantages of such channels for farmers are not backed by large-scale empirical evidence. Using a web survey of 613 direct-market farmers across Canada, this article explores the potential economic and social benefits that farmers derive from participating in short food supply chains. We used multivariate analysis to test whether a farmer’s degree of involvement in direct food channels is positively correlated with levels of work enjoyment, social satisfaction, and economic satisfaction. The results indicate that, overall, direct-market farmers report high levels of occupational satisfaction, although work-related challenges persist, such as stress, excessive workloads, and competition. Farmer participation in short food chains was also a positive predictor of work enjoyment and economic satisfaction, but not of social satisfaction, as measured by the share of total farm sales attributable to direct selling. Net annual farm revenue, the share of direct food sales involving a middleman, age, and gender also correlated with one or more dimensions of occupational satisfaction.

Pandemic-Related Challenges and Organizational Support Among Personnel in Canada's Defense Establishment.

In the final week of March 2020, 2.8 million Canadians were away from their usual places of work and engaging in remote and/or telework to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 (Statistics Canada, 2020). The Government of Canada's Department of National Defence (DND) and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) were no exception, with most members from the regular force (Reg F), the primary reserve force (P Res), and the DND public service (DND PS) working from home. The COVID-19 Defence Team Survey was administered from April 29th, 2020, and May 22nd, 2020, to gain insight into work, health, and family-related challenges since the onset of the pandemic and change in work arrangements. Responses from five open-ended questions were qualitatively analyzed to determine general themes of concern regarding work, personal, and family related challenges, stress-management and coping strategies, and recommendations for improving the work situation and personal well-being. Given the different roles and conditions of employment, responses of the different groups or “components” of respondents (Reg F, P Res, DND PS) were compared to identify common and unique challenges to inform targeted organizational responses. A total of 26,207 members (Reg F = 13,668, 52.2%; P Res = 5,052, 19.3%; DND PS = 7,487, 28.6%) responded to the survey's five open-ended questions, which yielded a total of 75,000 open-ended responses. When asked about work-related challenges, respondents' most common challenges included dissatisfaction with technology/software, work arrangements, ergonomics, work-life balance, communication within the organization, and the uncertainties regarding career development. In terms of personal and/or family-related challenges, the most common challenges included social isolation, the impact of the pandemic on mental health, school closures and homeschooling, caring for vulnerable family members, and childcare concerns. The most common stress-management and coping strategies included exercise, spending time outdoors, communicating or spending time with family members, household chores/projects, mind-body wellness exercises, and playing games. The most common recommendations made by respondents to improve their work- or personal-related situations included improving technological capabilities, streamlining communication, providing hardware and software necessary to ensure comfortable ergonomics, the provision of flexibility in terms of telework schedules, return-to-work decisions, and the expansion of benefits and access to childcare services. In terms of differences among the components, DND PS personnel were most likely to report dissatisfaction with technological changes and ergonomics, and to recommend improving these technological limitations to maximize productivity. Reg F members, on the other hand, were most likely to recommend increased support and access to childcare, and both Reg F and P Res members were more likely to mention that increased benefits and entitlements in response to the COVID-19 pandemic would be ameliorative. The results of this study highlight several important facts about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on personnel working in large, diverse organizations. For example, advancements in organizational technological capabilities were highlighted herein, and these are likely to grow to maintain productivity should remote work come to be used more extensively in the long-term. This study also highlighted the importance of flexibility and accommodation in relation to individual needs – a trend that was already underway but has taken on greater relevance and urgency in light of the pandemic. This is clearly essential to the organization's role in supporting the well-being of personnel and their families. Clear and streamlined communication regarding organizational changes and support services is also essential to minimize uncertainty and to provide useful supports for coping with this and other stressful situations.