Work, Psychological Stress, and Well-Being of Healthcare and Human Service Professionals during Outbreak of COVID-19

Background and Purpose – COVID-19 pandemic poses a significant challenge to healthcare and human service professionals who are exposed to and in direct contact with clients. This study explored the level of perceived stress and work-related problems experienced by healthcare and human service professionals during COVID-19 pandemic and the methods they used to cope with work-related stress. The study also assessed if their personal characteristics, work-related problems, and their satisfaction with diversity of staff composition, salary, and compensation influenced their perceived stress, and their physical and mental well-being.

Methods - A total of two hundred and twenty-seven (227) healthcare, social work, and human service professionals participated in a comprehensive online survey during the outbreak of COVID-19 from March to July 2020. Participants provided basic demographic and job-related information and completed a set of measures and standardized scales to explore their career experiences, perceived stress, work-related problems, as well as their psychological and physical health problems. Bivariate analyses were used to assess the relationships between perceived stress, work-related problems, satisfaction with job salary and compensation, satisfaction with diversity of staff composition, overall job satisfaction, and job-related health and mental health problems. Stepwise multiple regression analyses were used to identify predictors of their perception of psychological stress and job-related health and mental health problems.

Results - The study found a significant correlation between level of job satisfaction, satisfaction with diversity of staff composition, and satisfaction with job salary and compensation. Perceived stress was related positively with work-related problems and job-related health and mental health problems, but negatively with overall job satisfaction, satisfaction with diversity of staff composition, and satisfaction with job salary and compensation. Notably for healthcare and human service professionals in this sample, engaging activities that made their life enjoyable was the leading method of alleviating stress, followed by physical activity, use of body, mind, and spirit approach, and gaining support through a professional or social network. The findings revealed work-related problems and being younger as significant predicators of perceived stress. Work-related problems and female gender were significant predicators of experience of job-related health and mental health problems.

Conclusions and Implications: The study contributed to a growing body of literature that assessed the nature and sources of psychological stress experienced by healthcare and human service professionals, their stress coping methods, job-related experiences, and psychological and physical health. The findings of this study provide insights into novel factors that have impacted their psychological stress and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic. These factors should be further explored to inform public policy and interventions that mitigate health and mental health problems among healthcare and human service professionals during this and future outbreaks.