Professional Quality of Life, Engagement, and Self-Care in Healthcare Professionals in Ecuador during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of healthcare workers and their professional quality of life. This quantitative cross-sectional study aims at exploring the professional quality of life, work engagement, and self-care of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ecuador. A convenience sample of 117 participants completed an online voluntary and anonymous survey between April and July 2020. It contained a sociodemographic section, the Professional Quality of Life questionnaire V, the work engagement scale, and the scale of self-care behaviors for clinical psychologists. Results show that healthcare workers have an average quality of life with high levels of compassion satisfaction and average levels of compassion fatigue and burnout. Data also indicate that the sample frequently engaged in self-care practices and had high levels of work engagement. The regression analyses reveal that gender, the number of patients per week, the perceived fairness of the salary, among other variables are possible predictors of professional quality of life, frequency of self-care practices, and engagement. This study contributes to the understanding of these variables among healthcare professionals in Ecuador. These results should be considered when planning policies and prevention intervention efforts to promote professionals’ wellbeing.

Psychological Inflexibility and Loneliness Mediate the Impact of Stress on Anxiety and Depression Symptoms in Healthcare Students and Early-Career Professionals During COVID-19

“…Special attention should be placed on more vulnerable populations. Like other studies in the same cultural context (Paz et al, 2020 ; Cuartero-Castañer et al, 2021 ; Mautong et al, 2021 ), our results show that younger people are more at risk. We found that younger age correlated to higher psychological inflexibility, more anxiety and depression symptoms, and more alcohol consumption.…”

“…The COVID-19 pandemic has strained health systems and their workers. Although a previous study in Ecuador indicates that healthcare professionals show average levels of burnout and compassion fatigue (Cuartero-Castañer et al, 2021 ), we must advocate for better efforts to prevent other negative consequences of the pandemic. In Spain, for example, suicidal thoughts and behaviors have been common among healthcare professionals due to different factors such as lack of communication, coordination, personnel, and supervision (Mortier et al, 2021 ).…”

“…The pandemic collapsed its health system, forcing physical distancing and changing the lifestyle of its people. Studies during the pandemic show that healthcare workers in Ecuador presented moderate levels of burnout and compassion fatigue (Cuartero-Castañer et al, 2021 ). Also, around 20% of people in epidemiological surveillance for COVID-19 showed moderate to severe symptoms of depression and anxiety (Paz et al, 2020 ).…”

Professional Quality of Life Among Physicians and Nurses Working in Portuguese Hospitals During the Third Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The results revealed a moderate prevalence of burnout (72%) and secondary traumatic stress (69%), and moderate (80%) to high (18%) levels of compassion satisfaction. Similar findings were seen in Ecuador during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, where healthcare professionals reported medium levels of burnout and compassion fatigue (Cuartero-Castañer et al, 2021). However, Cuartero-Castañer et al (2021) found high levels of compassion satisfaction and argue that these results may have been due to strengthened recognition of the healthcare task force.…”

“…Similar findings were seen in Ecuador during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, where healthcare professionals reported medium levels of burnout and compassion fatigue (Cuartero-Castañer et al, 2021). However, Cuartero-Castañer et al (2021) found high levels of compassion satisfaction and argue that these results may have been due to strengthened recognition of the healthcare task force. Another study conducted during the first wave in Spain by Ruiz-Fernández et al (2020) found that the majority of healthcare professionals had high levels of compassion fatigue and medium to high levels of burnout and compassion satisfaction.…”