A Victoria and Monash University study has revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic amplified the cracks in a system already under stress in terms of job satisfaction, workforce retention and patient care.
The study, led by researchers at Victoria University and Monash University was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, arrives as the Australian Medical Association releases modeling that predicts hundreds of beds in the nation’s hospitals could be permanently full of COVID-19 patients each day, leading to overcrowding in emergency departments and extended wait times for elective surgeries, as restrictions ease across NSW, Victoria and the ACT.
Victoria University Public Health Professor Karen Willis said the study shows that the COVID-19 pandemic has added pressures to an already strained workplace and has created new stresses and challenges for our frontline healthcare workers.
The stresses included increased workloads, unfamiliar tasks outside their usual scope of work, disruption of established teams and rapidly changing procedures
“The overriding message was that there is a need for a safe workplace, where frontline healthcare workers feel valued and where there is a focus on retaining and supporting the workforce, which then translates into high quality patient care.”
The new study also highlights that healthcare workers are struggling to balance work, home roles and responsibilities, they have over-stretched staff resources and increased workload, changes to provision of patient care, negotiating new restrictions on visitors, job uncertainty, rapid changes to work practices and guidelines, and the unpredictability of these role and changed practices and stress and anxiety and feeling unsafe at work.
