Background The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on fractures in health care systems worldwide and continues to have a significant impact, particularly in relation to the health care workforce. Frontline staff have been exposed to unprecedented strain, and delivering care during the pandemic has affected their safety, mental health, and well-being. Objective This study aimed to explore the experiences of health care workers (HCWs) delivering care in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic to understand their well-being needs, experiences, and strategies used to maintain well-being (at individual and organizational levels). Methods We analyzed 94 telephone interviews with HCWs and 2000 tweets about HCWs’ mental health during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results The results were grouped under 6 themes: redeployment, clinical work, and sense of duty; well-being support and HCW’s coping strategies; negative mental health effects; organizational support; social network and support; and public and government support. Conclusions These findings demonstrate the need for open conversations, where staff’s well-being needs and the strategies they adopted can be shared and encouraged, rather than implementing top-down psychological interventions alone. At the macro level, the findings also highlighted the impact on HCW’s well-being of public and government support as well as the need to ensure protection through personal protective equipment, testing, and vaccines for frontline workers.
BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on fractures in health care systems worldwide and continues to have a significant impact, particularly in relation to the health care workforce. Frontline staff have been exposed to unprecedented strain, and delivering care during the pandemic has affected their safety, mental health, and well-being. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to explore the experiences of health care workers (HCWs) delivering care in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic to understand their well-being needs, experiences, and strategies used to maintain well-being (at individual and organizational levels). METHODS We analyzed 94 telephone interviews with HCWs and 2000 tweets about HCWs’ mental health during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS The results were grouped under 6 themes: redeployment, clinical work, and sense of duty; well-being support and HCW’s coping strategies; negative mental health effects; organizational support; social network and support; and public and government support. CONCLUSIONS These findings demonstrate the need for open conversations, where staff’s well-being needs and the strategies they adopted can be shared and encouraged, rather than implementing top-down psychological interventions alone. At the macro level, the findings also highlighted the impact on HCW’s well-being of public and government support as well as the need to ensure protection through personal protective equipment, testing, and vaccines for frontline workers.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the fractures of healthcare systems around the world, particularly in relation to the healthcare workforce. Frontline staff, in particular, have been exposed to unprecedented strain and delivering care during the pandemic has impacted their safety, mental health and wellbeing. The aim of this paper was to explore the experiences of HCWs delivering care in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic to understand their wellbeing needs, experiences and strategies used to maintain wellbeing (at individual and organizational levels). We analysed 94 telephone interviews with HCWs and 2000 tweets about HCWs mental health taking place during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results were grouped under six themes: redeployment; wellbeing support and coping strategies; mental health effects; organisational support; social network and public support. These findings demonstrate a need for open conversations, where staff’s wellbeing needs and strategies can be shared and encouraged, rather than implementing solely top-down psychological interventions. At the macro level, findings also highlighted the impact on HCW’s wellbeing of public and government support, as well as the need for ensuring protection through PPE, testing, and/or vaccines for frontline workers.
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