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; Aušra Griciūtė; Vilma Miglinė; Milda Kukulskienė; Aurima Stankūnienė; Nida Žemaitienė

doi:10.3390/ijerph18158202

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

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Aug 3;18(15):8202. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18158202.

Authors

Loreta Kubilienė¹, Aušra Griciūtė¹, Vilma Miglinė², Milda Kukulskienė¹, Aurima Stankūnienė³, Nida Žemaitienė¹

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Public Health, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, 44307 Kaunas, Lithuania.
² Community Well-Being Center, Mykolas Romeris University, 08303 Vilnius, Lithuania.
³ Department of Drug Technology and Social Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, 44307 Kaunas, Lithuania.

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.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; mental health; organizational factors; survey; well-being of healthcare workers.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Communicable Disease Control
Health Personnel
Humans
Pandemics*
SARS-CoV-2

Grants and funding

S-COV-20-22/Lietuvos Mokslo Taryba