Wellbeing and coping of UK nurses, midwives and allied health professionals during COVID-19-a cross-sectional study

Patricia Gillen, Ruth D. Neill, J. Mallett, J Moriarty, Jill Manthorpe, Heike Schroder, Denise Currie, Susan Mc Grory, Patricia Nicholl, Jermaine Ravalier, Paula Mc Fadden

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Nurse, Midwives and Allied Health Professionals (AHPs), along with other health and social care colleagues are the backbone of healthcare services. They have played a key role in responding to the increased demands on healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper compares cross-sectional data on quality of working life, wellbeing, coping and burnout of nurses, midwives and AHPs in the United Kingdom (UK) at two time points during the COVID-19 pandemic. An anonymous online repeated cross-sectional survey was conducted at two timepoints, Phase 1 (7th May 2020-3rd July 2020); Phase 2 (17th November 2020-1st February 2021). The survey consisted of the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale, the Work-Related Quality of Life Scale, and the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (Phase 2 only) to measure wellbeing, quality of working life and burnout. The Brief COPE scale and Strategies for Coping with Work and Family Stressors scale assessed coping strategies. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regressions examined the effects of coping strategies and demographic and work-related variables on wellbeing and quality of working life. A total of 1839 nurses, midwives and AHPs responded to the first or second survey, with a final sample of 1410 respondents -586 from Phase 1; 824 from Phase 2, (422 nurses, 192 midwives and 796 AHPs). Wellbeing and quality of working life scores were significantly lower in the Phase 2 sample compared to respondents in Phase 1 (p
Original languageEnglish
Article numbere0274036
Pages (from-to)1-21
Number of pages21
JournalPLoS ONE
Volume17
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished (in print/issue) - 21 Sept 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by Health and Social Care Research and Development Division of the Public Health Agency, Northern Ireland (COVID Rapid Response Funding Scheme COM/5603/20), the Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC) and the Southern Health and Social Care Trust, with support from England’s National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce - PR-PRU-1217-21002. The authors thank all participants for responding to these surveys during an extremely pressurised working period. Moreover, thanks to all who promoted the study including Community Care ©, Northern Ireland Practice and Education Council for Nursing and Midwifery, Royal College of Nursing, Royal College of Midwifery, Royal College of Occupational Therapists, British Dietetic Association, College of Podiatry, the five Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland, and the NISCC..

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Gillen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Keywords

  • Psychological stress
  • Pandemics
  • Allied health care professional
  • COVID-19
  • Midwives
  • Nurses
  • Emotions
  • Medical personnel

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