Job Demands and Resources among Healthcare Professionals during Virus Pandemics: A Review and Examination of Fluctuations in Mental Health Strain during COVID‐19

Abstract

The present article examines how job demands and resources are related to indices of strain among healthcare professionals during virus pandemics. The article also presents the results of a study examining the relationships between COVID‐19 demands (e.g., lack of personal protective equipment, concerns about infecting family members), resources (meaningful work, social support), and mental health strain within a sample of emergency medicine personnel over six consecutive weeks. COVID‐related demands and hours worked were hypothesized to be positively related to mental health strain, whereas meaningful work and social support were hypothesized to be negatively related to mental health strain. Hours worked the prior week were hypothesized to exacerbate the positive relationships between COVID‐19 demands and mental health strain, whereas the resources of meaningful work and social support were expected to buffer the relationships. Multilevel models controlling for mental health strain the prior week revealed that COVID‐19 demands, along with hours worked, were each related to higher mental health strain during the week. Hours worked magnified the within‐person relationship between personal COVID‐19 demands and mental health strain. Contrary to hypotheses, social support and meaningful work were not related to mental health strain. Discussion focuses the implications of the findings for healthcare professionals.

Exhaustion while teleworking during COVID-19: a moderated-mediation model of role clarity, self-efficacy, and task interdependence

“…As teleworking during COVID-19 is challenging in many ways, particularly in terms of employee well-being (Rudolph et al, 2020), it is necessary to determine the factors that have detrimental effects on well-being (i.e., job stressors) as well as the factors that may diminish the detrimental effects of the stressors on mental health strain (Britt et al, 2021). The present study supports and advances the JD-R model (e.g., Bakker et al, 2003;Demerouti et al, 2001), by exploring the mechanisms and boundary conditions of employee well-being while teleworking during COVID-19.…”

“…As our results indicate that work overload and task interdependence are related to employee burnout, an important concern for organizations should be to reduce overwhelming levels of workload and task interdependence in order to prevent employee mental health problems while teleworking during COVID-19 (Xanthopoulou et al, 2007). However, if it is not feasible to reduce these job demands, especially under the unique circumstances of teleworking during COVID-19, organizations should identify the specific job resources which may be most beneficial in supporting employees to cope with these job demands (Britt et al, 2021). Our finding concerning the role clarity as the underlying mechanism explaining the link between work overload and employees' emotional exhaustion suggests that organizations should act proactively to reduce the sources of role ambiguity (De Clercq, 2019).…”

Sense of coherence, social support and religiosity as resources for medical personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic: A web-based survey among 4324 health care workers within the German Network University Medicine

“…This conceptual overlap between SOC and mental health might explain the strong effects of SOC and the small effects of social support on mental symptoms in the multiple regression models, given that SOC and social support were also moderately correlated. However, it might also be possible that social support is not the most needed protective factor in the COVID-19 pandemic [50]. Although HCW reported normal levels of perceived social support, they may not have been able to use social contacts as effectively as before due to social restrictions during the pandemic or the fear of infecting close friends when meeting in person.…”

Work‐Related Psychosocial Risk Factors and Coping Resources during the COVID‐19 Crisis

“…An occupational group in the spotlight during the pandemic are frontline healthcare workers. Britt, Shuffler, Pegram, Xoxakos, Rosopa, Hirsch, and Jackson (2021) study the dynamics of mental health strain among healthcare workers. The task forces that are installed to manage the crisis situation have to deal with specific demands due to highly urgent, uncertain and volatile environments.…”

“…In light of the current COVID‐19 pandemic and surges in healthcare demands, Britt et al (2021) set out to investigate the association between job conditions and mental health outcomes among healthcare professionals. They combine a review and synthesis of available literature as well as an empirical study.…”