Hospital Staffing during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Sweden

Abstract

Staff management challenges in the healthcare system are inherently different during pandemic conditions than under normal circumstances. Surge capacity must be rapidly increased, particularly in the intensive care units (ICU), to handle the increased pressure, without depleting the rest of the system. In addition, sickness or fatigue among the staff can become a critical issue. This study explores the lessons learned by first- and second-line managers in Sweden with regard to staff management during the COVID-19 pandemic. A mixed-methods approach was used, with preliminary qualitative interview (n = 38) and principal quantitative questionnaire (n = 272) studies, based on principal component and multiple regression analyses. The results revealed that the pandemic created four types of challenges relating to staff management: staff movement within hospitals; addition of external staff; addition of hours for existing staff through overtime and new shift schedules; and avoidance of lost hours due to sickness or fatigue. Furthermore, the effects of these managerial challenges were different in the first wave than in later waves, and they significantly differed between the ICU and other units. Therefore, a greater proactive focus on staff management would be beneficial in future pandemic situations.

Performance analysis of English hospitals during the first and second waves of the coronavirus pandemic

“…Finally, we also want to control for the staff absence in the hospitals, which was a serious concern during the peak of the first wave of the pandemic (see, e.g., [ 26 ] for further discussion and evidence from Sweden). The NHS data reports the total number of staff members absent, but it is important to make this number proportionate to the total bed capacity of the hospital; absence of one nurse in a small hospital with ten nurses is a more serious problem than in a large hospital with hundreds of nurses.…”

Experience and Resilience of Japanese Public Health Nurses during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Their Impact on Burnout

“…Thus, we extracted items from a qualitative study on distress and its related experiences during the pandemic, which we conducted in 2021 ( Supplementary File S1 ) [ 37 ]. This method has been utilized by several studies to obtain practical suggestions that reflect the backgrounds of the sample [ 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 ]. The experience of PHNs was measured with 10 items under the question “Did you experience the following situation during the COVID-19 pandemic?” with a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree.…”

Management learning in public healthcare during pandemics

“…Different professional logic and organizational routines need to be identified and aligned, as motivation is intrinsic, personalized and individualized. Hence, managers in health care need to create an environment for their employees to obtain positive energy (Conrad, Ghosh, & Isaacson, 2015;Rosenbäck, Lantz, & Ros en, 2022). There is an apparent risk of power games in such situations, and people may question who is in charge.…”

“…However in a crisis, there is also a need for progressive and distributed management that incorporates perspectives of multiple stakeholders (Glenn et al, 2020). Moreover, it is important that the management endures over time (Rosenbäck & Svensson, 2021). Boin, Hart, Stern, & Sundelius (2005) developed a framework for analyzing crisis management, consisting of five core tasks of management during crises: sensemaking, decision-making, meaning-making, crisis termination and learning.…”