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Self-care among healthcare social workers: The impact of COVID-19
Abstract
For social work practitioners in healthcare settings, self-care can be an integral tool to assuaging stressors associated with COVID-19. However, research that examines the impact of public health crises, such as COVID-19, is nominal, at best. This exploratory study investigated the impact of COVID-19 on the self-care practices of self-identified healthcare social workers (N = 2,460) in one southeastern state. Primary data were collected via an electronic survey and assessed via a retrospective pre/post design. Analyses compared practices before and after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. Overall, data suggest that participants experienced significant pre/post decreases in self-care practices across multiple domains. As well, findings indicate that participants who identified as married, financially stable, and working non-remotely, and in good physical/mental health engaged in significantly more self-care practices than other participants, at post. This study underscores the need to foster supportive professional cultures that include developing self-care practice skills, particularly during large-scale crisis, such as COVID-19.
... Along with the fear of contracting COVID-19, CHWs experienced difficult emotional reactions and psychosocial consequences such as anxiety, depression, isolation, and exhaustion (Senreich et al., 2021). Studies have indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic created high levels of stress, a decline in emotional wellbeing, and a decrease in self-care practices (Magruder et al., 2022;Miller & Reddin Cassar, 2021). ...
... Acknowledging the high levels of stress and anxiety that they were experiencing had a negative impact on their mental health CHWs agreed that they were in need of ongoing social and emotional support to maintain their health and wellbeing. Job-related burnout was found to have significantly increased during the COVID-19 crisis while, at the same time, self-care was found to decrease among healthcare workers (Kulkarni et al., 2020;Miller & Reddin Cassar, 2021), making it difficult to maintain a beneficial work-life balance (Senreich et al., 2021). Social distancing restrictions resulted in some employees receiving less social support and social interaction at work than they desired which was harmful to their mental health (Breetzke & Wild, 2022). ...
... Support networks and supervision may be useful to improve employees' social connections and mental health (Breetzke & Wild, 2022). Remote work communities can facilitate virtual social support networks, including self-help groups, which encourage a culture of self-care practices (Miller & Reddin Cassar, 2021). Supervision and professional mentorship can be an important aspect of self-care practice (Miller & Reddin Cassar, 2021). ...
... Studies assessed self-care among samples of social work practitioners (n = 15), social work students (n = 3), and social work educators (n = 3). The majority of these studies were cross-sectional survey research (n = 17), with the remaining being pre/posttest (n = 1; Miller & Reddin Cassar, 2021), qualitative (n = 2; Diebold et al., 2018;Newcomb et al., 2017), or mixed-methods design (n = 1; Myers et al., 2022). ...
... Fifteen studies focused on self-care practices among social work practitioners. Study designs were primarily cross-sectional exploratory (n = 15; Bloomquist et al., 2016;Cuartero & Campos-Vidal, 2019;Diebold et al., 2018;Loeffler et al., 2018;Miller & Reddin Cassar, 2021;Miller et al., 2017;Miller, Barnhart, et al., 2021;Miller, Donohue Dioh, et al., 2019;Miller, Lee, et al., 2019;Miller, Poklembova, et al., 2020, 2021Salloum et al., 2015Salloum et al., , 2019. The focus now turns to summarizing key themes identified in research. ...
... Data from the Professional Self-Care Scale (Dorociak et al., 2017) were analyzed with a sample of predominantly White women (90% for both) were compared before and after COVID-19. Miller and Reddin Cassar's (2021) results reported that social workers' self-care practices decreased significantly from pre-COVID-19 to post-COVID-19. Participants who identified as married, financially stable, working in-person, and with higher self-reported health were engaged in more self-care practices at the post-COVID-19 time point. ...
Purpose:
The purpose of this systematic review is to fill the gap in a critical understanding of peer-reviewed empirical research on self-care practices to identify structural, relational, and individual-level facilitators and barriers to self-care practices in social work.
Method:
We followed the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis for this systematic review of peer-reviewed quantitative and qualitative empirical research articles focusing on self-care in social work among adult social work practitioners and students.
Results:
Twenty-one articles related to empirical studies of self-care were identified in the systematic review process with samples of social work practitioners (n = 15), social work students (n = 3), and social work educators (n = 3).
Discussion:
Social workers engaged in self-care practices are more likely to be healthy, work less, be White, and have higher socioeconomic professional status and privilege, indicating current conceptualizations of self-care may not be accessible and contextually and culturally relevant for many social workers.
Conclusion:
Overwhelmingly, results indicated social workers reporting greater sociostructural, economic, professional, and physical health privilege engaged in more self-care. No articles directly assessed institutional factors that may drive distress among social workers and clients. Rather, self-care was framed as a personal responsibility without integration of feminized and racialized inequities in a sociopolitical and historical context. Such framings may replicate rather than redress unsustainable inequities experienced by social workers and clients.
... In the past, research on self-care was carried out from the perspective of medicine, which mainly regarded self-care as a means to alleviate or solve medical diseases (Miller & Cassar, 2021). With an emphasis on self-care and the practice of multiple subjective forms of self-care, the current literature has expanded the concept of self-care to include different perspectives, such as lifestyle, interpersonal relationships, physical health, and professional environment (Dorociak et al., 2017;Newell, 2020). ...
... Significant predictors of self-care include education level, perceived health status, being a supervisor, and financial status. Miller and Cassar (2021) pointed out that social workers' self-care was significantly related to age, practice experience, and hours worked per day. Alkema et al. (2008) showed that social workers with longer professional practice experience develop more self-care strategies. ...
... These challenges may include insufficient organizational support (Miller, Donohue-Dioh, et al., 2018), difficulty in defining appropriate self-care practices (Coleman et al., 2016), an insufficient self-care training framework, and a lack of an appropriate environment to implement self-care practices . In particular, public health crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, may aggravate these challenges (Miller & Cassar, 2021). ...
The self‐care practices of social workers have garnered increasing attention in the literature, yet little is known about the case of China. To explore the self‐care practices of Chinese social workers under the COVID‐19 pandemic, this study uses the Self‐Care Practice Scale (SCPS) to measure the self‐care practices of social workers (N = 1066) in Fujian Province, China. The results indicate that Chinese social workers engage in moderate amounts of self‐care practices under the COVID‐19 pandemic. Significant group differences exist in social workers' self‐care practices by marital status, parenting status, age, health satisfaction, years of practicing social work, average hours of work per day, resignation intention, job satisfaction, number of received supervision services in a year, and self‐care education. Significant predictors of self‐care include marital status, monthly salary, service status, average hours of work per day, number of received supervision services in a year, school self‐care education, job satisfaction, and health satisfaction. This study has practical implications for self‐care education and practice, including workplace health promotion and the development of self‐care practice policies.
... As a response to the above-described challenges, some authors, both academics and social work practitioners, proposed and promoted self-care, while researchers studied coping strategies and the forms and scope in which self-care was practiced in HSC occupational groups. The emphasis on self-care resulted from statements made by crucial organisations: the World Health Organisation, the National Health Service, American Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), and the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) all recommended self-care to deal with difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic (Miller and Reddin Cassar, 2021). ...
... A study conducted in the United States has shown that during the COVID-19 outbreak, the frequency of self-care practices among HSCW significantly decreased. The practices that were measured included professional development, cultivating professional relationships, spending time with family and friends, monitoring emotions, triggers and reactions to clients, or taking time for relaxation (Dorociak et al., 2017;Miller and Reddin Cassar, 2021). ...
COVID-19 outbreak produced an unprecedented crisis in care sectors. Nursing home workers, healthcare, social care, and clinical social workers (HSCW) often took the burden of managing the crisis in their facilities, risking increased stress, trauma, and burnout. As a response to this issue, increased interest in self-care in health and social work literature could be observed. Yet, the concept of self-care is problematic, as it focuses attention on the individual responsibility to care for oneself, regardless of organisational and structural factors and obstacles. The article provides a critical literature review, focused on risk factors and psychological consequences of the pandemic in health and social care and clinical social work, and on the proposed response, namely, self-care. The aim of the article is to systematise knowledge about approaches to self-care in these sectors and to critically review those approaches. Critiques of self-care are considered, including those informed by Foucauldian perspective of governmentality and responsibilization. The concept of community care is introduced as an implication and an answer to these critiques.
... S ocial worker turnover because of burnout from emotional overload during the COVID-19 pandemic has become a major concern (Kranke et al., 2021;Lai et al., 2020;Miller & Reddin Cassar, 2021). Peleg et al. (2021) note how the pandemic is a unique disaster, unlike any most people have seen in their lifetime. ...
... Turnover is costly to agencies as research shows that the cost of turnover is about two to three times the cost of a healthcare provider's salary (Singh, 2021). Moreover, social workers who remain on staff following their colleagues' departures are then tasked with additional responsibilities to fill in gaps caused by understaffing (Miller & Reddin Cassar, 2021). ...
Social work turnover from the emotional overload of providing care during the pandemic has created staff shortages and exposed many gaps in service delivery. Those social workers who sustained employment during this pandemic are asked to take on flexible/additional roles to fill in those gaps in services to their most vulnerable clients. This qualitative study (N = 12) of U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) inpatient social workers at two sites across the country assesses their experiences of taking on additional roles at their respective VA facility. Three research questions were addressed to the participants: (1) Describe your roles and responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic? (2) How did those responsibilities change/evolve over time? and (3) Did you receive training for your new roles or tasks? Thematic analysis revealed six themes that would facilitate effectiveness and continuity of care: (1) recognizing insufficient training to handle a pandemic, (2) meeting the demand for care, (3) responding to unexpected aspects of flexibility, (4) adjusting to new roles over time, (5) adaptation and support, and (6) additional resources to simplify efforts. With COVID rates stabilizing across much of the United States, now is the time to implement trainings and education about job flexibility in the future instance of a pandemic.
... Specifically, a stressful work environment, such as a lack of resources, due to the upsurge of COVID-19 cases and deaths at the beginning of the pandemic, made it difficult for healthcare workers to sufficiently deal with their clients, and the work environment was associated with their moral injury and distress (Hines et al., 2021;Williamson et al., 2020). Additional evidence also shows the negative impact of COVID-19 on mental health; during the pandemic, 11.6 percent of healthcare social workers in a southeastern state reported that they had a fair or poor current mental health status (Miller & Cassar, 2021). Finally, despite evidence showing the need for organizational interventions designed to help social workers cope with mental health issues, research shows that there have been insufficient discussions on individual or organizational supports among social service organizations (Beer et al., 2021). ...
... Previous studies have identified several negative mental health trends associated with COVID-19, and findings from the literature highlight the need for additional studies about social workers' mental health during the pandemic (Miller & Cassar, 2021;Redondo-Sama et al., 2020;Williamson et al., 2020). To address this issue, this article discusses a descriptive and cross-sectional study that was conducted to explore the role of social connectedness as a moderator between COVIDrelated factors and mental health among social workers during the pandemic. ...
Although social workers have an elevated risk of infection with COVID-19, no previous studies have investigated the virus’s impact on practitioners. Using survey data (N = 441), this study identified associations between stress, depression, and COVID-related factors and explored the role of social connectedness as a moderator for mental health among Ohio social workers. The results of the study showed that among social workers with a positive COVID-19 diagnosis, 70 percent experienced moderate/high levels of stress, and 37 percent met the criteria for clinical depressive symptoms. Results from the multiple regression analyses showed that perceived stress was positively associated with a positive COVID-19 diagnosis for social workers, and depression was positively associated with working with a client with a positive COVID-19 diagnosis. An interaction effect was also identified between social connectedness and social workers’ mental health. These findings suggest that the provision of individual or organizational interventions that emphasize social connectedness can help to protect social workers’ mental health.
... It is critical that social workers learn and practice self-care practices in these trying times. People who work in healthcare will be under increasing pressure to manage their own wellbeing while also trying to help others, so it is essential that social workers develop strategies for managing their own wellbeing as the pandemic continues (Miller and Reddin Cassar, 2021). For social workers, this could have a significant impact on their mental health and future direction. ...
... However, the severe stresses associated with the pandemic and brought about by the nature of work in the medical field underscores the need for social workers for an integrated tool to alleviate the stresses associated with COVID-19 and anxiety about the disease itself. Self-care is one of the most important pillars that empower social workers and prepare them to support clients and the health care team (Miller and Reddin Cassar, 2021). All healthcare workers need psychological counseling and comprehensive mental health services because of their risk of developing PTSD and developing a range of negative consequences of COVID-19 (McFadden et al., 2021). ...
... It is critical that social workers learn and practice self-care practices in these trying times. People who work in healthcare will be under increasing pressure to manage their own wellbeing while also trying to help others, so it is essential that social workers develop strategies for managing their own wellbeing as the pandemic continues (Miller and Reddin Cassar, 2021). For social workers, this could have a significant impact on their mental health and future direction. ...
... However, the severe stresses associated with the pandemic and brought about by the nature of work in the medical field underscores the need for social workers for an integrated tool to alleviate the stresses associated with COVID-19 and anxiety about the disease itself. Self-care is one of the most important pillars that empower social workers and prepare them to support clients and the health care team (Miller and Reddin Cassar, 2021). All healthcare workers need psychological counseling and comprehensive mental health services because of their risk of developing PTSD and developing a range of negative consequences of COVID-19 (McFadden et al., 2021). ...
COVID-19 has been studied extensively for its direct effects on healthcare workers. Despite this, very little is known about the effect of COVID-19 fear on future orientation. Studying medical social workers’ fear of being infected with COVID-19 and their future orientation was the primary method used to examine this relationship. 204 Turkish medical social workers on the pandemic’s front lines were included in the total sample. Social workers were found to be extremely concerned about contracting COVID-19. Although only gender is a significant predictor of the fear of contracting COVID-19 infection, the study also found that female social workers have a higher fear of infection than males. Also, no correlation exists between social workers’ vaccination status and their fear of contracting COVID-19. There was a weak negative correlation between social workers’ fear of contracting COVID-19 and their future orientation, but in general, social workers had a positive future orientation. Medical social workers and front-line health care providers can use these findings to develop effective and culturally appropriate intervention programs to reduce COVID-19 concerns and foster a forward-looking outlook.
... In this paper, we explore US-based social workers' responsibilities and recognition within the workplace and society in their role as essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although this study focused on US-based social workers specifically, findings have implications for social workers and other social care providers globally who also lack visibility (Paul et al., 2020) and have experienced high rates of overwhelm that leads to burnout (Banks et al., 2020;Downing et al., 2020;Miller & Reddin Cassar, 2021) during the COVID-19 pandemic (and in its aftermath). ...
... While a few studies have investigated experiences of social workers and the impact of the COVID-19 on social workers' well-being (e.g. Miller & Reddin Cassar, 2021;Ross et al., 2021), these have been restricted to samples of social workers employed in health and hospital settings. Moreover, although calls for social work to be recognised as an essential workforce have proliferated in response to pandemicrelated needs of populations served both nationally and internationally (e.g. ...
Social work has been a part of the essential workforce historically and throughout the COVID‐19 pandemic, yet lack recognition. This work explores the experiences and invisibility of social workers within the pandemic response. Data are drawn from a large cross‐sectional survey of US‐based social worker from June to August of 2020. A summative content analysis of responses to the question ‘What do you wish people knew about social work during the COVID‐19 pandemic’ was undertaken. Participants (n = 515) were majority white (72.1%) and female (90.8%). Seven coding categories were subsequently collapsed into three domains: (1) meeting basic needs, (2) well‐being (emotional distress and dual role) and (3) professional invisibility (workplace equals, physical safety, professional invisibility and organisational invisibility). Meeting social needs requires broad‐based policies that strengthen the health and social safety net. Social workers have and will continue to play a critical role in the response, and recovery from COVID‐19. Organisational and governmental policies must expand to increase the visibility and responsiveness to the needs of social care providers.
... The unfamiliar nature of the virus and its deviants, the uncertainties of its progression, and the initially questionable level of vaccine protection increased stressors for every individual -particularly those who have regular and frequent contact with patients. In addition, continuous changing practice guidelines, role ambiguity, and organizational support have further exacerbated healthcare workers' stress levels (Miller & Cassar, 2021). Lai et al. (2020) identified an exceedingly high prevalence of depression, anxiety, insomnia, and distress symptoms during the pandemic (Lai et al., 2020). ...
... Nearly all the papers in the special edition focused on the service recipients or the community but not the worker themselves, except for three. Miller and Cassar (2021) studied the self-care practices of health social workers and found that the practices decreased significantly during the pandemic. Social workers usually put others over themselves. ...
Hong Kong experienced the SARS pandemic in 2003. Seventeen years later, the Covid-19 pandemic now challenges Hong Kong and the world. This study aims to unveil the impact of the pandemic on health social workers. One hundred and sixty-six health care social workers in Hong Kong were recruited to join a cross-sectional online survey from November 2020 to March 2021. This paper includes the analysis of the demographic information, fear of contamination, resilience, perceived social support and physical health only. Irrespective of the demographic background, the level of fear of contamination, resilience, perceived social support and physical health were similar. The mean scores of the two dimensions of fear of contamination (Harm avoidance: m = 7.49, s.d. = 3.25; Disgust avoidance: m = 7.75, s.d. = 2.90) were higher than those of general public and clinical samples with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. No moderation effects were found in resilience and perceived social support in the relationship of fear of contamination and physical health. Instead, direct effects were shown.The impact of the pandemic on health social workers was universal. Psychoeducational programs to alleviate the fear of contamination and organizational-level interventions to improve workplace social support are highly needed.
... Several studies also mirror this irregularity of self-care among social workers. The University of Kentucky's College of Social Work Self-Care Lab (Piercy, 2020), Miller et al., 2018, Miller and Cassar, 2021, and Carranza and Castillo (2022 stated that the pandemic has caused a decrease in self-care for almost all participants. Downing et al. (2021) implied that social workers often prioritized their work or their clients, to the detriment of their own health and self-caring. ...
Given the intense demands imposed on medical social workers (MSWs) during the COVID-19 pandemic, they are vulnerable to developing occupational wellness concerns (OWCs): physical, social, emotional, mental, or spiritual issues caused by work-related factors. OWCs adversely affect the occupational wellness of the worker and the quality of service given to clients. One approach to reduce OWCs is professional self-care. This study explored the experiences of Filipino MSWs during the pandemic, the OWCs experienced, their self-care strategies, and their impact on professional practice. Face-to-face, Zoom, and email interviews were conducted with 10 MSWs who were part of the skeletal workforce of four (4) hospitals in Metro Manila. The findings showed that OWCs were caused by their commitment to professional duty, intense workload, and health and safety risks. This resulted in conflict with coworkers, desire to quit work, undesirable work attitudes, unhealthy habits, and disruption in the quality of service provision. Meanwhile, professional self-care led to enhanced work performance, improved relations with coworkers and clients, enhanced cognitive ability, increased self-awareness, and acted as a first aid response to combat OWCs. Insights on hospital limitations, supportive mechanisms, social work as an undervalued versus satisfying profession, motivation, and professionalism during the pandemic were also documented.
... As a response the workers presented four diferent mechanism of action: emotional distancing, sharing emotions, selfsoothing and politization [56]. Social workers experienced signifcant pre/post-pandemic decreases in self-care practices [57]. It is emphasized that social workers need to develop a self-care system in a prolonged disaster in the event of a prolonged traumatic social situation [58]. ...
This paper aims to establish strategies of coping with COVID-19 pandemic adopted by the clients of social assistance from the perspective of social workers. The qualitative research among Polish social workers and family assistants was conducted from September to November 2021. Based on 30 in-depth interviews with social work professionals, groups of social assistance clients’ behaviours were identified and classified into the theoretical models of reactions to social change by Merton and Giddens. The following types of behaviour have been selected and categorized into four groups of reactions when dealing with social workers in a pandemic situation: coolheaded calculation, defiance, confusion, and adaptation. At the same time, reactions to the situation of social change were categorized into one of the strategies of active or passive behaviour: innovation, contestation, retreat, and acceptance. In addition, we discussed the impact of clients’ coping strategies on social workers and established three attitudes of the surveyed social workers: adapting to the pandemic situation and customer behaviour, assuming the role of an emotional buffer and informant, and expecting support from superiors and coworkers. Knowing the behaviour of social assistance clients in a challenging situation makes it possible to adopt tailor-made measures.
... Social workers were also reported to experience high levels of stress and burnout during this period, with high levels of emotional and mental health problems, such as grief, secondary trauma PTSD (Dima et al., 2021;Holmes et al., 2021;Wu et al., 2022). They also practiced less self-care, compared to pre-pandemic times (Miller and Reddin Cassar, 2021), which risks stress and burnout. ...
Social workers were heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we examined the well-being, burnout and work conditions of UK children’s social workers at five time points of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a cross-sectional mixed methods study analysing data from 1,621 social workers who worked in children’s services in the UK in 2020–2022. Data were collected using anonymous online surveys which included both quantitative and qualitative questions. The mental well-being of participants decreased as the pandemic progressed and work-related burnout increased. In the later stages of the pandemic, children’s social workers in Northern Ireland fared better than their Great Britain counterparts in relation to their well-being and levels of burnout. Thematic analysis of qualitative data revealed four major themes: Changes in service demand and referrals, Adapted ways of working, Staff shortages and Emotional impact. The findings highlight the challenges that the children’s social workers encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic and have implications for policy, practice and research.
... There is an expected deficit in the number of social workers in the helping professions workforce through at least 2030 (Lund et al., 2021). Limited research (Bender et al., 2021;Miller & Reddin Cassar, 2021;Morse & Dell, 2021) disseminates particular strategies that can be utilized by social workers; identification of effective strategies is essential to maintaining the emotional well-being of social workers. Research shows that the cost of turnover is about two to three times the cost of a healthcare provider's salary (Singh, 2021). ...
The social work profession is dealing with an increased rate of turnover, due largely in part to the pandemic. A recent study showed that U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) inpatient social workers utilized strategies of "emotional preparedness" to retain their job during the pandemic. The aim of this current study is to explore if outpatient social workers utilized similar strategies for their own job retention. There may be differences in the strategies utilized because outpatient and inpatient social workers tend to work in different environments. In this qualitative study, authors conducted interviews with (N = 13) outpatient social workers from a VA site in the Southwestern region of the United States. Findings were analyzed thematically. Authors conducted open coding and applied a priori themes/strategies from extant research among VA inpatient social workers. Most of the a priori themes/strategies were prevalent among outpatient social workers, and two emerging themes were (1) acknowledging shared trauma and (2) human connection to overcome isolation. Strategies of emotional preparedness should be implemented on a grander scale to facilitate job retention since there is an expected deficit in the social work workforce until at least 2030.
... Mollica et al. [31] reviewed individual professionals' attitudes to their own self-care and in particular with relation to burnout caused by physical and mental exhaustion and in the USA, Miller and Cassar [32] investigated the impact of COVID-19 on the self-care practices of selfidentified healthcare and social workers and found that participants who identified as married, financially stable, working non-remotely, and in good physical/mental health engaged in significantly more self-care practices than other participants. ...
Background:
The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed the way services are delivered. Self-care, including good hygiene practices and avoidance of risk was emphasised as the key measure to tackle the pandemic in the early stages.
Objective:
To understand how self-reported professional attitudes, perceptions and practices of self-care have changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design:
Cross-sectional online survey and semi-structured qualitative interview.
Setting:
Health care.
Participants:
304 healthcare professionals (HCPs).
Methods:
A wide range of HCPs, including pharmacists, nurses, doctors, social prescribers and other designations took part in a 27-item anonymous online survey. Semi-structured qualitative interviews with nine healthcare professionals explored attitudes to and practices of self-care before and during the pandemic. Views were sought on the permanence and implications of changes. Data were analysed using routine statistics and thematic analysis to identify major themes.
Results:
A total of 304 HCPs responded to the survey fully. Nine participated in a semi-structured interview. There was agreement that the importance of self-care has increased markedly during the pandemic. The percentage of respondents who felt that self-care was 'very' important to their clients increased from 54.3% to 86.6% since the pandemic. Personal empowerment and capacity of service users to self-care increased significantly during the pandemic. Willingness of patients to engage (74%) and poor understanding of self-care (71%) were cited as the two main barriers to self-care. A close third was digital exclusion (71%), though 86% of respondents recommended online resources and 77% the use of smartphone apps. Survey respondents believed the changes to be permanent and positive. Interviewees reported a major, and positive move to self-care with the pandemic seen as an opportunity to be grasped, but professional education would have to be aligned to make the most of it. They raised concerns as to whether the shift to self-care was perceived by users as 'abandonment' rather than 'empowerment' and whether problems had been stored rather than dealt with through self-care and therefore whether the positive changes would continue after the pandemic.
Conclusion:
Reporting their views before the pandemic, barely more than half of the professionals surveyed saw self-care as fundamentally important to the individuals they served. This changed to 86% as a result of the pandemic. Patient/client engagement with and understanding of self-care were reported as major barriers, as was digital exclusion, though increased technological solutions were used by all respondents. Concerns were raised that the permanence of the changes depended upon continued encouragement and empowerment of individuals to self-care and on its inclusion in professional education as a substantive subject.
... On the other hand, remote work affects work-life balance by blurring the boundaries between work and family life (Ross et al. 2021). This influences social workers' self-care strategies to cope with stress, exacerbating burnout (Miller and Reddin Cassar 2021). Indeed, healthcare social workers are, for the most part, women, and the difficulties in reconciling care and family responsibilities with their work increase the risk of psychological burnout (Schiff et al. 2021). ...
The COVID-19 pandemic is only the most recent challenge for healthcare professionals. Critical change processes, synthesized in the terms neoliberalization, globalization, and digitalization, have affected institutional settings and workplaces and altered work practices and working conditions in this professional area. Such processes have also influenced how professionals perceive their roles and interact with managers, peers, and users, calling into question professional identities. This chapter focuses on healthcare social workers – namely, social workers who work in healthcare facilities and collaborate with other professionals to address complex situations – arguing that they have been severely hit by the above changes and are further threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on a literature review, the analysis shows that neoliberalization is the fil rouge that connects social, institutional, and professional change and identifies new public management as a factor that significantly modified social work practice in healthcare. Street-level bureaucracy literature, though, revealed ambiguous effects on social workers’ discretionary autonomy. Then, while it is clear that the pandemic crisis has affected work organization and working conditions, its impact on identity dynamics is nebulous.
... Mollica et al [29] reviewed individual professionals' attitudes to their own self-care and in particular with relation to burnout caused by physical and mental exhaustion and in the USA, Miller and Cassar [30]investigated the impact of COVID-19 on the self-care practices of self-identi ed healthcare social workers and found that participants who identi ed as married, nancially stable, working non-remotely, and in good physical/mental health engaged in signi cantly more self-care practices than other participants. ...
Background
The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed the way services are delivered. Self-care, including good hygiene practices and avoidance of risk was emphasised as the key measure to tackle the pandemic in the early stages.
Objective
To understand how self-reported professional attitudes, perceptions and practices of self-care have changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design
Cross-sectional online survey and semi-structured qualitative interview.
Setting
Health and social care.
Participants
304 health and social care professionals.
Methods
A wide range of health and social care professionals took part in a 27-item anonymous online survey. Semi-structured qualitative interviews with nine health & social care professionals explored attitudes to and practices of self-care before and during the pandemic. Views were sought on the permanence and implications of changes. Data were analysed using routine statistics and thematic analysis to identify major themes.
Results
A total of 304 health and social care professionals responded to the survey fully. Nine participated in a semi-structured interview. There was agreement that the importance of self-care has increased markedly during the pandemic. The percentage of respondents who felt that self-care was 'extremely' important to their clients increased from 54.3% to 86.6% since the pandemic. Personal empowerment and capacity of service users to self-care increased significantly during the pandemic.
Willingness of patients to engage (74%) and poor understanding of self-care (71%) were cited as the two main barriers to self-care. A close third was digital exclusion (71%), though 86% of respondents recommending online resources and 77% the use of smartphone apps. Survey respondents believed the changes to be permanent and positive. Interviewees reported a major, and positive move to self-care with the pandemic seen as an opportunity to be grasped, but professional education would have to be aligned to make the most of it. They raised concerns as to whether the shift to self-care was perceived by users as 'abandonment' rather than 'empowerment' and whether problems had been stored rather than dealt with through self-care and therefore whether the positive changes would continue after the pandemic.
Conclusion
Reporting their views before the pandemic, barely more than half of the professionals surveyed saw self-care as fundamentally important to the individuals they served. This changed to 86% as a result of the pandemic. Patient/client engagement with and understanding of self-care were reported as major barriers, as was digital exclusion, though, increased technological solutions were used by all respondents. Concerns were raised that the permanence of the changes depended upon continued encouragement and empowerment of individuals to self-care and on its inclusion in professional education as a substantive subject.
... Over the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic also led to a heightened push towards self-care promotion generally (Miller & Cassar, 2021;Omrani et al., 2021). Social science researchers have widely studied and documented the biopsychosocial impacts of isolation, illness, financial stress, and fear on quality of life, citing self-care as a major requirement for overall mental health. ...
The 2021 revision to the ethical code for social workers mandated engagement in self-care. A review of workforce data suggests that the need for self-care in social work is largely due to poor working conditions, inadequate pay, unavailability of quality supervision, and lack of professional recognition. Thus, making self-care largely a personal responsibility is adopting a "blaming the victim" mentality that the profession has historically rejected in its approach to client problems. Social work is rooted in examining the social conditions of people within their environments and focusing on making macro level changes to remedy systemic problems. Though not intentional, the ethical mandate for social workers to remedy the stress, trauma, and burnout resulting from environmental stressors is misplaced, though not surprising. In recent years, social workers have focused more on working with individuals to fix their problems rather than making contextual changes that are largely responsible for the ills. This article reframes the emotional and psychological problems experienced by social workers as a social justice issue, requiring mezzo and macro, rather than micro, level intervention. Embracing this alternative perspective requires a commitment to mobilization, advocacy, and political engagement-approaches that have been deprioritized by many within the social work profession.
... However, COVID-19 has affected healthcare systems, including the social workers who provide services. These effects might have many consequences, such as stress, burnout, and other issues (Miller & Reddin Cassar, 2021). As a result, in this chapter, we attempt to learn from the experiences of the social worker who worked on the front lines of the pandemic. ...
Introduction
The practice of social work is a helping profession that uses methods and ideas of social and behavioural human systems to address social issues. Millions of people have been infected, and the Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) epidemic has killed almost two million people worldwide. To prepare the social work profession for future pandemic outbreaks, we must investigate the role played by social workers during a pandemic epidemic. The social work profession greatly impacts educating the most disadvantaged, offering psychological assistance, and promoting social inclusion. The hallmark of the social work profession is the design and execution of interventions that will benefit the lives of the vulnerable population and society (Okafor, 2021). However, COVID-19 has affected healthcare systems, including the social workers who provide services. These effects might have many consequences, such as stress, burnout, and other issues (Miller & Reddin Cassar, 2021). As a result, in this chapter, we attempt to learn from the experiences of the social worker who worked on the front lines of the pandemic. Although these were not simple teachings, they served more as benchmarks for advancing the social work profession in times of calamity and pandemics. This necessitates consideration of current medical practice, instruction, and technological usage. It is important to concentrate on studies about the post-pandemic profession, particularly in the medical field, which was previously a risky area for social workers.
... depression (46.90%), and anxiety (47.28%). Researchers have also documented a considerable decline in self-care practices among social workers in the pandemic context (Miller & Reddin Cassar, 2021). Others, however, reported that greater engagement with self-care practices predicted a decrease in pandemic-related distress among social workers . ...
From fear of contracting the virus, isolation from physical distancing, to navigating lifework balance, the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to leave long-lasting psychosocial impacts on many. Shared trauma refers to similar psychological reactions to an extraordinary community event when experienced by both the clinicians and clients. We examined the experiences mong mental health clinicians in Canada and the United States (n = 196) in this online survey study during the second phase of the pandemic (Spring 2021). In addition to using traditional survey items (e.g., demographics, scales, and short answers), we also used video-recorded Simulated Clients (SC; i.e., professional actors) as a novel method to elicit the participants' assessment of the SCs and the psychosocial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using shared trauma as a theoretical framework, we analyzed both quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative results suggested that although these mental health clinicians certainly reported experiencing psychosocial impacts of the pandemic themselves, these shared experiences with client and general populations did not greatly impact how they understood the SCs. Qualitative results helped further contextualize the clinicians' own personal and professional lives. Implications for clinical practice and further research related to shared trauma are discussed.
... Essential child protective services have also been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic as home visits took place virtually, which was accompanied by both new challenges and new opportunities (Ferguson et al., 2022). Although the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected social workers and the services provided (e.g., Miller and Cassar, 2021), there is evidence to suggest that the challenges that pediatric social workers face are unique (Ross et al., 2021). ...
COVID-19 has continued to bring devastation to children and families, even 1 year into the pandemic. The rise of the Black Lives Matter movement has also led to renewed attention to systemic racism in the United States and awareness of how the pandemic has further exacerbated health inequities that disproportionately affect communities of color. Pediatric hospital social workers have played a key role since the beginning of the pandemic in responding to the resulting behavioral health crisis and helping to address social disparities. There is a need to understand how the roles and experiences of pediatric social workers have evolved during the first year of the pandemic. In this qualitative study, a series of practice-setting based focus groups were conducted with social workers to capture (a) what has changed or stayed the same since the beginning of COVID-19, (b) thoughts and experiences on diversity, equity, and inclusion with particular attention to race and racism, and (c) perspectives about the long-term implications of COVID-19 on the profession of social work. The Framework Method was used to analyze data, from which six superordinate themes emerged: burnout/coping; the impact of patient acuity; awareness of racial inequity in patient care; awareness of social determinants of health; social worker inclusion in hospital decision-making and policy reform; and grief/racial inequity. An overview of what has stayed the same, what has changed, and what the future may hold for pediatric hospital social workers is reviewed.
... COVID-19 has highlighted the need for better self-maintenance of frontliners [15]. Public health social distancing measures increased the likelihood that social workers would confront high-risk situations alone, such as engaging with drug and alcohol-dependent PEHs [16]. ...
The dramatic increase of global extreme events (e.g., natural, technological, and willful hazards) propels social workers to be equipped with emergency response capacity, supporting affected individuals, families, and communities to prepare, respond, and recover from disasters. Although social workers have historically been engaged in emergency response, social work curriculum and professional training remain slow to adapt, jeopardizing their capacity to support the vulnerable and marginalized populations, who have always been disproportionately affected by extreme events. In response to this deficit, this article utilizes a critical reflection approach to examine three social workers’ (a senior faculty, a junior faculty, and a social work student) interventions and challenges in their emergency response to persons experiencing homelessness (PEHs) during the first two waves of COVID-19 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (March 2020 to March 2021). The cross-career-stage reflections and analyses exhibit these three social workers’ COVID-19-specific emergency response efforts: a top-down advocacy effort for social development and policy, a bottom-up cognitive effort to comprehend the community’s dynamics, and a disaster-driven self-care effort. These three types of effort demonstrate a greater need for social work education and professional training, to develop more disaster-specific components to contribute to building the emergency response capacity of the next generation of social workers through in-classroom pedagogical enhancement and on-site field education training, better supporting PEHs and other vulnerable and marginalized groups living in the diverse context of extreme events in Canada and internationally.
... The world is undergoing major changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020. Mandatory wearing of masks and social distancing policies are in effect in most countries, and many social and economic experts are saying that we need to prepare for new COVID-19 bursts after the pandemic [1,2]. Taking care of one's own health is becoming more important than ever [3]. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the fitness-related field. More people started working out at home, and the use of fitness mobile apps that can measure the amount of exercise through a scientific method has increased compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic. This phenomenon is likely to continue even after the COVID-19 pandemic, and therefore this study aimed to investigate the importance of and satisfaction with a fitness app’s functions according to consumers while using the fitness mobile app. Through this study, we intended to provide data for creating an environment where users can use fitness mobile apps consistently. A total of 420 questionnaires were distributed through Google Survey for about 3 months, from 13 September to 20 November 2020, and a total of 399 complete questionnaires were analyzed in this study. Regarding the data processing methods, frequency analysis, exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis, descriptive statistical analysis, and IPA were used. The results are as follows. First, the first quadrant of the IPA matrix indicated the high importance of and satisfaction with the fitness mobile app, and included five attributes: cost-effectiveness, easy-to-understand information, ease of use and application, privacy protection, and compatibility with other devices. Second, the second quadrant of the matrix indicated relatively low satisfaction in association to high importance and included five attributes: accurate exercise information provision, design efficiency, daily exercise amount setting, convenient icons and interface, and provision of images and videos in appropriate proportions. Third, the third quadrant of the matrix, indicating low importance and low satisfaction, included five attributes: not sharing personal information, overall design composition and color, customer service, reliable security level, and providing information on goal achievement after exercising. Fourth, in the quadrant of the matrix, indicating low importance and high satisfaction, five attributes were included: exercise notification function, continuous service provision, step count and heart rate information, individual exercise recommendation, and individual body type analysis information.
... İş ve diğer inisiyatifler, artan zihinsel esenlikten ve çalışma yaşamının kalitesinden sorumlu olabilir. COVID-19 salgını sırasında Birleşik Krallık sosyal hizmet uzmanları üzerindeki bilinen baskıları kabul ederken, bu kanıt, pandeminin yöneticiler ve işverenler için derslerle karışık bir resmini ortaya koyuyor COVID-19'un kendi kendine sağlık hizmeti veren sosyal hizmet uzmanlarının (N = 2,460) öz bakım uygulamaları üzerindeki etkisini araştırmak için birincil veriler elektronik bir anket yoluyla toplandı ve geriye dönük bir ön/ son tasarım ile değerlendirildi (Miller ve Reddin Cassar, 2021) . Katılımcıların birden fazla alanda öz bakım uygulamalarının önemli düşüşler yaşadığını göstermektedir. ...
Yaşanmakta olan süreçte Türkiye gibi kırılgan ekonomilere sahip olan ülkelerin pandemi koşullarıyla birlikte ekonomik ve sosyal kırılganlıkları artmıştır. Çünkü bir yandan üretim faaliyetlerine zorunlu olarak ara verilmiş bir yandan da sağlık alanıyla ilgili sorunlar aciliyet kazanmıştır. Üstelik bu süreç virüsün varyantlarıyla devam etmekte ve birkaç yıl daha dünyanın gündeminde yer edineceğe benzemektedir. Bu zorlayıcı koşullar altında sosyal devleti yeniden ele almak ihtiyacı doğmuştur
... Auch von Überlastung (Dominelli 2021; Alsago 2021) und psychischen Folgen wie Schlaflosigkeit, Stress und Burnout wurde berichtet (Truell und Crompton 2020). Gerade in einer Situation, in der Fachkräfte ganz besonders auf ihre eigene physische und psychische Gesundheit achten sollten, wurde deutlich, dass sie über der Sorge um Klient*innen oftmals die Fürsorge für sich selbst in den Hintergrund stellten (Khan et al. 2020;Miller und Reddin Cassar 2021;Peinado und Anderson 2020). ...
Zusammenfassung
Die Vorgaben des „Social Distancing“ während der Corona-Pandemie stellten Angebote der psychosozialen Versorgung von Kindern, Jugendlichen und Familien, die traditionell auf persönlichem Kontakt beruhen, in der Durchführung vor neue Herausforderungen. In dieser qualitativen Studie wurde zu drei Erhebungszeitpunkten zwischen März und Oktober 2020 untersucht, wie sich die Pandemie speziell auf diese Angebote ausgewirkt hat und wie Mitarbeiter*innen und Führungspersonen psychosozialer Einrichtungen die Arbeit unter den veränderten Gegebenheiten erlebten. Ihre Arbeitssituation wird unter Zuhilfenahme der Konzepte des Arbeitskraftunternehmers und der Vulnerabilität untersucht. Es werden zwei Themenfelder vorgestellt, die sich in der Analyse der ersten beiden Erhebungszeiträume als zentral erwiesen haben: Das Spannungsfeld zwischen dem Schutz der eigenen Gesundheit und der Versorgungssicherheit für Klient*innen und das Belastungserleben von Praktiker*innen in Zusammenhang mit stark veränderten Arbeitsrealitäten in der Sozialen Arbeit und der eigenen Betroffenheit von der Corona-Pandemie. Deutlich wird das Bestreben der Fachkräfte, trotz schwieriger Rahmenbedingungen unterstützende Angebote während der Krise aufrechtzuerhalten. Es zeigen sich aber auch die Belastung und Überforderung der Praktiker*innen im Feld und es wird ersichtlich, dass adäquate Rahmenbedingungen sowohl zur Stärkung der psychosozialen Versorgung generell wie auch für die Bewältigung gesellschaftlicher Krisen notwendig sind.
... Hence, we can conclude that health care has a social and self-esteem perspective. Miller and Reddin (2021) associate self-actualization with the realization of selfcare to remain healthy. ...
Purpose
The purpose of the study was to apply Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to understand consumer motivation for preventive health care in India using content analysis.
Design/methodology/approach
Content analysis approach which is a qualitative-based approach was adopted. The responses were collected through semi-structured interviews using purposeful sampling method, and the responses were analyzed using content analysis approach. Sub themes and main themes were derived from the data which related to concepts in Maslow’s theory.
Findings
The results indicate the following: healthy food, healthy diet and health supplements are the basic need; sustainability of health and fitness and health security relate to safety and security need; feeling of pride in being fit, being a role model of fitness for others and influence of electronic media relate to social and self-esteem need; freedom from disease and peace of mind fulfill the need for self-actualization.
Research limitations/implications
To strengthen the external validity, a mix of alternate research methodologies adopting qualitative and quantitative approach need to be adopted.
Practical implications
This study will help to better understand motivation for preventive health care. It will enable health-care companies to design health-care marketing programs based on Maslow’s theory to motivate individuals to purchase health products. The public health-care departments can issue guidelines based on Maslow’s theory to motivate citizens toward preventive health care.
Originality/value
Maslow’s theory was applied in the context of preventive health care.
... Współczynnik reproduktywności (R 0 ) można oszacować na podstawie obserwacji łańcuchów zakażeń, ognisk infekcji lub przez badanie rozprzestrzeniania się wirusa w populacji . Obecnie szacowany konsensus R 0 dla SARS-CoV-2 wynosi 2-3, wyższe szacunki (nawet do 14,8) były zgłaszane z pojedynczych ognisk epidemicznych, takich jak statek wycieczkowy "Diamond Princess" . Niejednorodność szacunków wartości R 0 może być najlepiej wyjaśniona wysoką międzyosobniczą zmiennością prawdopodobieństwa transmisji z pojedynczych przypadków zakażenia . ...
The COVID‐19 pandemic has created major challenges globally. The social work and human services profession has been required to rapidly respond to policy and social changes. This research aimed to understand how the pandemic has affected social work and human services staff within Melbourne, Victoria. In this paper, we analyse the practice and policy implications of these responses, and outline learning for the human services sector. We draw on interviews with social work and human services practitioners, exploring their experiences during the pandemic, including social and economic impacts on service users and agencies, and organisational and practice changes. Participants highlight compliance requirements, digitalisation of services, loss of social connection for service users and service impacts. In addition, participants highlight how people from low socioeconomic backgrounds were immensely affected throughout COVID‐19 lockdowns. However, this research also identifies service benefits, resulting from the rapid adjustments made by agencies that need further exploration for future practice. This article highlights how, despite the challenges posed by COVID‐19, agencies and workers developed innovative responses to this crisis. Drawing on these insights can help to understand how such initiatives can be implemented in the future. This article contributes to knowledge about innovation in a time of crisis.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted multiple aspects of Vietnamese people’s lives since its first outbreak in January 2020 (Ha et al., 2020). Counting to the end of February 2022, Vietnam experienced four waves of COVID-19 with close to 2,900,000 infected cases and 40,000 related deaths. COVID-19 has disproportionately affected large metropolitan areas in the country. Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), the largest city in Vietnam, has been reported to be the most affected city, as it accounts for 20.6% of the COVID-19 cases and 52.5% of the related deaths in the fourth wave (World Health Organization, 2022). The fatality rate from COVID-19 in HCMC was 4.95%, which was much higher than the national average rate (2.6%) and the equivalent rates of Cambodia (2.38%) and Thailand (1.34%; Onishi & Li, 2021). In order to contain the virus before the COVID-19 vaccine was deployed widely, strict lockdown, social distancing, and social isolation were applied across the country (Ha et al., 2020).
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic led to a rapid transition to telemedicine for mental health care and redefined many providers' work environments and practices. The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of work location on telemental health (TMH) benefits, disruptions, and concerns to further understand the rapid implementation of telemedicine for mental health treatment. Methods: A sample of 175 practicing TMH providers completed an online survey between July and August 2020. Providers answered questions about personal demographics and practice characteristics. Next, they answered questions about benefits, disruptions, and concerns regarding the use of telemedicine in their practice. Chi-square and independent samples t-test were conducted to identify work location differences for personal demographics and clinical practice characteristics. Three multivariate analyses of covariance were conducted to examine overall differences in perceptions of telemedicine benefits, concerns, and disruptions based on work location while covarying for provider race, ethnicity, percentage of caseload seen through telemedicine, practice type, specialty, and primary method of reimbursement. Results: TMH providers who primarily work from an office reported more benefit of reduced costs/overhead (ηp2 = 0.039), less benefit of limiting the spread of the virus (ηp2 = 0.028), and more concern about reimbursement (ηp2 = 0.046) than those who primarily work from home. We observed no difference in disruptions, patient access to care, quality of care, and work-life balance. Discussion: Exploration into work location of TMH providers aids in understanding of clinical workflows and provider wellbeing. Our findings suggest that telemedicine may be easily integrated into different types of clinical workflows and work locations.
Medical social workers are essential members of healthcare teams, especially during a pandemic. Their scope of practice includes conducting psychological assessments, coordinating social services, connecting patients to resources that address social determinants of health, discharge planning, and patient advocacy. Social workers' experiences of psychological distress were unique even before the COVID-19 pandemic; their work demands a high amount of emotional investment as they frequently witness others' pain and suffering and navigate various daily challenges and crises. This study explores psychological distress experienced by medical social workers and the coping strategies used by these professionals during the pandemic prior to the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. Faced with conflicting information from state and federal agencies, social workers dealt with resource shortages, took on additional roles and responsibilities, and contended with regular value conflicts and ethical dilemmas. Our findings indicate that medical social workers are not sufficiently protected or prioritized in their workplaces and that infrastructure to support social workers' emotional wellbeing is lacking. Distinct themes that emerged from the data under the umbrella of psychological distress include feeling unprotected, overburdened, and undervalued. We discuss a need for targeted policy and sustainability-oriented solutions to improve coping and resilience, mitigate psychological distress, and prevent burnout among medical social workers.
The study examined professional self-care and social workers' burnout and established a relationship between the variables in public junior secondary schools in Ikorodu North LCDA, Lagos State. The study adopted an exploratory research design. A sample of sixteen school social workers was drawn in public junior secondary schools of Ikorodu North LCDA from the population consisting of social workers in public junior secondary schools in zone one, education district two of Lagos State through purposive sampling technique. The study collected quantitative and qualitative data for analysis with descriptive and inferential statistics using a self-developed questionnaire validated for face and content validity. A Cronbach's Alpha test-retest reliability coefficient of 0.78 was obtained for the instrument after a pilot study. Findings revealed that the extent of social workers' burnout in public junior secondary schools was high. Social workers experienced a high level of exhaustion and mental distance derived from work-related stress. The social workers could identify professional self-care techniques. The findings also showed that professional self-care influenced social workers' burnout. The result indicated a positive and moderate significant relationship influence of professional self-care on social workers' burnout (r = 0.52, p < 0.041). The study recommended that school social workers should build competencies and adhere to their professional code of ethics to help them manage burnout with professional self-care techniques in school social work practice. Social work education by tertiary institutions, professional associations, and the workplace should include training social workers to use professional self-care techniques to manage their burnout in school settings.
Background:
Nursing home (NH) social workers face many challenges in meeting the psychosocial needs of residents while balancing their own well-being needs.
Methods:
This study employed a cross-sectional survey of NH social workers via social media and professional networks about their coping strategies during COVID-19. Open-ended responses were analyzed qualitatively using the rigorous and accelerated data reduction technique (RADaR).
Results:
The study included a sample of 63 (N = 63) NH social workers. Four themes defined ways the in which NH social workers coped with stress during COVID-19, including relying on friends and family, mindfulness and spirituality/religion, self-care strategies, and setting boundaries at work.
Conclusion:
These techniques appear to be effective; however there remains a need for institutional programs and policies to provide the time and space to holistically support coping in NH social workers and to prevent burnout and turnover, particularly during times of crisis.
This study explores urban social workers’ experiences working the front lines during COVID-19’s first wave. It aims to uncover social workers’ shifts in roles and responsibilities across the health and social service network, to illuminate how these shifts impacted them, and ultimately to derive meaning from these experiences to inform future directions for the profession. Eight social workers from a range of contexts were interviewed. Our analyses revealed that, while all participants described some negatives of front-line pandemic work, the frequency and intensity of these moments were exacerbated by organizational and policy responses. When social workers were expected to work outside of their scope of practice, when their skills were overlooked or underutilized, and when their organizational contexts focused on individual distress rather than collective support, they reported intensified periods of distress. If we hope to retain the health and wellbeing of our workforce and preserve the value of the profession, systemic preventative responses must take priority. Building opportunities for collective on-going peer support and debriefing, leveraging the expertise of social workers to address psychosocial issues, and including the voices of front-line workers in the development of solutions to pandemic-related hardships may help reduce social work distress and improve front-line workers’ responses to social issues.
The COVID-19 pandemic, a first in many generations disaster, has highlighted gaps globally among graduated social work providers. This qualitative study of (N = 12) inpatient social workers who provided care during the pandemic, strives to suggest specific disaster-related content to inform the MSW curricula. Thematic analysis suggested including: 1) self-care in a prolonged disaster; 2) responding to nuances of the job; 3) expansion and integration of practicum specialties; 4) preparing for the effects of another pandemic; 5) advocating for yourself; and 6) the public’s view of social workers. Findings could potentially inform the content that is taught to MSW students post-pandemic.
Purpose
The National Association of Social Workers encourages self-care among practitioners. Self-care may prevent secondary traumatic stress, however, research examining self-care and other employee-related outcomes is dearth. Job satisfaction and organizational commitment are important for client, employee, and agency outcomes, but self-care’s role is unclear.
Methods
The relationship between employee self-care practices, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment was considered among 137 practitioners from a single US state during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Results
Job satisfaction was positively correlated with tenure, caring workplaces, and professional self-care. Organizational commitment was positively associated with hours worked, caring work environments, and professional self-care.
Discussion
Professional self-care was the most important self-care domain for job satisfaction and organizational commitment, but the least utilized form of self-care. Findings suggest the need to nurture organizational cultures emphasizing the importance of professional self-care and climates emphasizing employee safety during pandemics.
Conclusion
Replication among larger samples with representation from gender diverse and BIPOC practitioners is recommended.
Stress, emotional exhaustion and job dissatisfaction have been prevailing issues in social work for decades, with recent research by BASW demonstrating poor psychological outcomes for social workers, amidst inadequate levels of staff retention and high burn out rates. The Covid-19 pandemic added to these existing stresses, with social workers experiencing multiple losses, including bereavements and changes to working practices. As a response to the pandemic, many hospitals and health care settings established bespoke wobble spaces, dedicated to enhancing staff well-being. However, despite the reported success of these wobble spaces, results from a literature review show that they have not been established within social work. The pilot study discussed in this article explored and evaluated the impacts of a virtual wobble space provided for social workers over three months at fortnightly intervals. The research design was purposefully creative and aimed at focussing on positivity and fun as a counter to much of the existing literature on stress and burnout in social work. The study is limited by a small sample size but nevertheless the unanimously positive findings and wider interest, suggest there may be a broader role for wobble space provision in social work.
During the COVID-19 pandemic interest into its potential impact on mental well-being has intensified. Within the social care sector, the pandemic has increased job demands and prolonged stress taking a disproportionate toll on the workforce, particularly social workers. This article compares the mental well-being and quality of working life of social workers in the United Kingdom (UK) before and during the pandemic. Data were collected in 2018 (N = 1,195) and 2020 (N = 1,024) using two cross-sectional surveys. To account for the differences between the datasets, propensity score matching was employed prior to effect estimation, utilising demographic and work-related variables common to both datasets. The differences between the two time-points were estimated using multiple regressions. Both mental well-being and quality of working life were significantly higher during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 compared to 2018. This suggests that during the highpoint of the pandemic in the UK, increased support, and changes to working practices, such as reprioritisation of work and other initiatives, may be responsible for increased mental well-being and quality of working life. While acknowledging the known pressures on UK social workers during the COVID-19 pandemic this evidence suggests a mixed picture of the pandemic with lessons for managers and employers.
This chapter discusses the experience of three graduate students of social work enrolled in field instruction during the first semester that was restructured to be managed remotely, due to the restrictions of the COVID-19 community quarantine in the Philippines. Specifically, the researcher examined the integrative reports and reflexive notes of the students and faculty supervisors, and audio/video recordings of the department’s field sharing of experiences. Comparison of the data from the proposed models of practice submitted by the graduate students revealed different knowledge sources used by the students in evaluating the gaps in practice in their respective agencies. The proposed models of the graduate reflected the combination of knowledge shared by the different stakeholders, (organizations, clients, faculty supervisors, agency supervisors), the application of theories and perspectives in social work and other disciplines, and the insights and strategies gleaned from innovative practice. This knowledge creation is vital toward the remaking of social work for the future.KeywordsKnowledge creationCOVID-19Social work educationField instructionInnovative strategiesCreativityCritical realism
Stress and mental health are among the biggest causes of sickness absence in the UK, with the Social Work and Social Care sectors having among the highest levels of stress and mental health sickness absence of all professions in the UK. Chronically poor working conditions are known to impact employees' psychological and physiological health. The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has affected both the mode and method of work in Social Care and Social Work. Through a series of cross-sectional online surveys, completed by a total of 4,950 UK Social Care and Social Workers, this study reports the changing working conditions and well-being of UK Social Care and Social Workers at two time points (phases) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
All working conditions and well-being measures were found to be significantly worse during Phase 2 (November–January 2021) than Phase 1 (May–July 2020), with worse psychological well-being than the UK average in Phase 2. Furthermore, our findings indicate that in January 2021, feelings about general well-being, control at work, and working conditions predicted worsened psychological well-being.
Our findings highlight the importance of understanding and addressing the impact of the pandemic on the Social Care and Social Work workforce, thus highlighting that individuals, organizations, and governments need to develop mechanisms to support these employees during and beyond the pandemic.
The aim of this research was to determine the mediating role of resilience in the effect of perceived social support on fear of COVID-19. The research was conducted in the Marmara region of Turkey in July and August 2020. The present research showed that the perceived social support has a positive effect on resilience. Furthermore, the research determined that both perceived social support and resilience has a negative effect on the fear of COVID-19. Finally, it was determined that resilience has a mediating role in the effect of perceived social support on the fear of COVID-19.
Background
The impact of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the emotional health of health care workers continues to be an area of active research. However, few studies have focused on those working in pediatrics and its subspecialties, as well as ancillary and non-patient-facing staff. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and associated predictors of burnout and emotional well-being of providers and staff.
Methods
An anonymous electronic survey was developed evaluating demographics, pandemic experiences, possible predictor variables, and three main outcomes of burnout, psychological distress, and perceived stress. Pediatric hematology oncology (PHO) chiefs and program directors across the country were invited to participate and disseminate the survey to their programs.
Results
A total of 682/1950 (35% of invited) individuals responded to all predictor and outcome variables. Over half reported high levels of burnout and some reported moderate/high levels of distress. Prepandemic burnout and decreased trust in leadership were associated with all three outcomes. Additional predictors included having a child ≤18 years at home, hospital role, and worrying about patient care or relationship with their patients. The majority (n = 444/682, 65.5%) reported that their institution had made COVID-19-related mental health resources available. However, only 6.5% (n = 44/682) reported utilizing these resources.
Conclusions
While the majority of PHO providers and staff were resilient during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, many reported high levels of burnout, yet few are utilizing institutional resources. This study has highlighted several actionable areas to help identify and address factors that are wearing down the emotional well-being of providers and staff.
This study reports the findings of a qualitative focus group study of 16 recently graduated MSW social workers in the New York City area regarding their experiences working during the devastating initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic from March to June 2020. Each respondent participated in one of two 90-minute focus groups in October of that year. Themes delineated were: Varying levels of agency responsiveness and support; Rapid changes in job functions; Great decrease in availability of client services and resources; Social workers’ difficult emotional reactions; Balancing family circumstances with work responsibilities; Fear of contracting COVID-19; and Professional pride and growth. The findings indicate the need for more holistic supervisory support for beginning social workers, more effective and transparent communication in agency settings, and better preparedness for crisis situations. The results are also a tribute to the dedication of new social workers who worked tenaciously during a global crisis despite their own difficult emotional reactions and family situations.
Background
Data for front-line health-care workers and risk of COVID-19 are limited. We sought to assess risk of COVID-19 among front-line health-care workers compared with the general community and the effect of personal protective equipment (PPE) on risk.
Methods
We did a prospective, observational cohort study in the UK and the USA of the general community, including front-line health-care workers, using self-reported data from the COVID Symptom Study smartphone application (app) from March 24 (UK) and March 29 (USA) to April 23, 2020. Participants were voluntary users of the app and at first use provided information on demographic factors (including age, sex, race or ethnic background, height and weight, and occupation) and medical history, and subsequently reported any COVID-19 symptoms. We used Cox proportional hazards modelling to estimate multivariate-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) of our primary outcome, which was a positive COVID-19 test. The COVID Symptom Study app is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04331509.
Findings
Among 2 035 395 community individuals and 99 795 front-line health-care workers, we recorded 5545 incident reports of a positive COVID-19 test over 34 435 272 person-days. Compared with the general community, front-line health-care workers were at increased risk for reporting a positive COVID-19 test (adjusted HR 11·61, 95% CI 10·93–12·33). To account for differences in testing frequency between front-line health-care workers and the general community and possible selection bias, an inverse probability-weighted model was used to adjust for the likelihood of receiving a COVID-19 test (adjusted HR 3·40, 95% CI 3·37–3·43). Secondary and post-hoc analyses suggested adequacy of PPE, clinical setting, and ethnic background were also important factors.
Interpretation
In the UK and the USA, risk of reporting a positive test for COVID-19 was increased among front-line health-care workers. Health-care systems should ensure adequate availability of PPE and develop additional strategies to protect health-care workers from COVID-19, particularly those from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds. Additional follow-up of these observational findings is needed.
Funding
Zoe Global, Wellcome Trust, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, National Institutes of Health Research, UK Research and Innovation, Alzheimer's Society, National Institutes of Health, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness.
Background:
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has spread to 198 countries, with approximately 2.4 million confirmed cases and 150,000 deaths globally as of April 18. Frontline healthcare workers (HCWs) face a substantially higher risk of infection and death due to excessive COVID-19 exposure. This review aimed at summarizing the evidence of the physical and mental health impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on health-care workers (HCWs).
Methods:
We used the Arksey O'Malley framework to conduct a scoping review. A systematic literature search was conducted using two databases: PubMed and Google Scholar. We found 154 studies, and out of which 10 met our criteria. We collected information on the date of publication, first author's country, the title of the article, study design, study population, intervention and outcome, and key findings, and divided all research articles into two domains: physical and mental health impact.
Results:
We reviewed a total of 154 articles from PubMed (126) and Google Scholar (28), of which 58 were found to be duplicate articles and were excluded. Of the remaining 96 articles, 82 were excluded after screening for eligibility, and 4 articles did not have available full texts. Ten full-text articles were reviewed and included in this study. Our findings identified the following risk factors for COVID-19-related health impact: working in a high-risk department, diagnosed family member, inadequate hand hygiene, suboptimal hand hygiene before and after contact with patients, improper PPE use, close contact with patients (≥ 12 times/day), long daily contact hours (≥ 15 h), and unprotected exposure. The most common symptoms identified amongst HCWs were fever (85%), cough (70%), and weakness (70%). Prolonged PPE usage led to cutaneous manifestations and skin damage (97%), with the nasal bridge (83%) most commonly affected site. HCWs experienced high levels of depression, anxiety, insomnia, and distress. Female HCWs and nurses were disproportionately affected.
Conclusion:
The frontline healthcare workers are at risk of physical and mental consequences directly as the result of providing care to patients with COVID-19. Even though there are few intervention studies, early data suggest implementation strategies to reduce the chances of infections, shorter shift lengths, and mechanisms for mental health support could reduce the morbidity and mortality amongst HCWs.
Healthcare workers employed in the COVID-19 emergency are at high risk of stress, burnout and post-traumatic stress disorders. The most important occupational risk factors that employers should address include insufficient staff training and resources available, and lack of training and treatment protocols. In Italy, recent guidelines were released for providing all healthcare workers who are employed in this emergency with psychological support services based on coping strategies for managing stress. We suggest that preventive measures and a psychological intervention plan should be framed within the mandatory occupational health surveillance programme, and carried out by occupational physicians in cooperation with mental healthcare providers in the workplace.
Background
The global pandemic of coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) has led to unprecedented psychological stress on health workers (HCWs). We aimed to assess the psychological impact of COVID-19 on HCWs in comparison to the stress brought on by the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) epidemic in Saudi Arabia.
Method
Between February 5th and 16th, 2020, 811 health-care workers (HCWs) of a tertiary care teaching hospital were invited to fill a questionnaire regarding concerns and worries about the novel coronavirus pandemic, along with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) Anxiety Severity screening tool.
Results
Out of 582 HCWs who completed the survey questionnaire (response rate of 71.8%), about 40% were exposed previously to MERS-CoV infected or suspected patients during a previous hospital outbreak. While there were no COVID-19 cases reported yet in Saudi Arabia at the time of data collection, still, the anxiety level from COVID-19 was significantly higher than that from MERS-CoV or seasonal influenza: 41.1% were more worried about COVID-19, 41.4% were similarly worried about both MERS-CoV and COVID-19, and 17.5% were more stressed by the previous MERS-CoV hospital outbreak. The most frequent concern was transmitting the infection to family and friends (2.71/5) than to themselves only (2.57/5).
Conclusion
Pandemic and epidemic infectious diseases such as COVID-19 or MERS-CoV impose a significant level of anxiety and stress on healthcare workers who are caring of infected patients, with their main concern being the risk of transmitting the infection to their families or to acquire it themselves. Therefore, optimizing the compliance of healthcare workers with the proper infection prevention and control measures is paramount during the infectious disease outbreak, to ensure their safety, to decrease the likelihood of getting infected or transmitting the infection to others, and consequently to alleviate their psychological stress and anxiety.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) poses an occupational health risk to healthcare workers. Several thousand healthcare workers have already been infected, mainly in China. Preventing intra-hospital transmission of the communicable disease is therefore a priority. Based on the Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety model, the strategies and measures to protect healthcare workers in an acute tertiary hospital are described along the domains of work task, technologies and tools, work environmental factors, and organizational conditions. The principle of zero occupational infection remains an achievable goal that all healthcare systems need to strive for in the face of a potential pandemic.
Importance
Health care workers exposed to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) could be psychologically stressed.
Objective
To assess the magnitude of mental health outcomes and associated factors among health care workers treating patients exposed to COVID-19 in China.
Design, Settings, and Participants
This cross-sectional, survey-based, region-stratified study collected demographic data and mental health measurements from 1257 health care workers in 34 hospitals from January 29, 2020, to February 3, 2020, in China. Health care workers in hospitals equipped with fever clinics or wards for patients with COVID-19 were eligible.
Main Outcomes and Measures
The degree of symptoms of depression, anxiety, insomnia, and distress was assessed by the Chinese versions of the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire, the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale, the 7-item Insomnia Severity Index, and the 22-item Impact of Event Scale–Revised, respectively. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors associated with mental health outcomes.
Results
A total of 1257 of 1830 contacted individuals completed the survey, with a participation rate of 68.7%. A total of 813 (64.7%) were aged 26 to 40 years, and 964 (76.7%) were women. Of all participants, 764 (60.8%) were nurses, and 493 (39.2%) were physicians; 760 (60.5%) worked in hospitals in Wuhan, and 522 (41.5%) were frontline health care workers. A considerable proportion of participants reported symptoms of depression (634 [50.4%]), anxiety (560 [44.6%]), insomnia (427 [34.0%]), and distress (899 [71.5%]). Nurses, women, frontline health care workers, and those working in Wuhan, China, reported more severe degrees of all measurements of mental health symptoms than other health care workers (eg, median [IQR] Patient Health Questionnaire scores among physicians vs nurses: 4.0 [1.0-7.0] vs 5.0 [2.0-8.0]; P = .007; median [interquartile range {IQR}] Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale scores among men vs women: 2.0 [0-6.0] vs 4.0 [1.0-7.0]; P < .001; median [IQR] Insomnia Severity Index scores among frontline vs second-line workers: 6.0 [2.0-11.0] vs 4.0 [1.0-8.0]; P < .001; median [IQR] Impact of Event Scale–Revised scores among those in Wuhan vs those in Hubei outside Wuhan and those outside Hubei: 21.0 [8.5-34.5] vs 18.0 [6.0-28.0] in Hubei outside Wuhan and 15.0 [4.0-26.0] outside Hubei; P < .001). Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed participants from outside Hubei province were associated with lower risk of experiencing symptoms of distress compared with those in Wuhan (odds ratio [OR], 0.62; 95% CI, 0.43-0.88; P = .008). Frontline health care workers engaged in direct diagnosis, treatment, and care of patients with COVID-19 were associated with a higher risk of symptoms of depression (OR, 1.52; 95% CI, 1.11-2.09; P = .01), anxiety (OR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.22-2.02; P < .001), insomnia (OR, 2.97; 95% CI, 1.92-4.60; P < .001), and distress (OR, 1.60; 95% CI, 1.25-2.04; P < .001).
Conclusions and Relevance
In this survey of heath care workers in hospitals equipped with fever clinics or wards for patients with COVID-19 in Wuhan and other regions in China, participants reported experiencing psychological burden, especially nurses, women, those in Wuhan, and frontline health care workers directly engaged in the diagnosis, treatment, and care for patients with COVID-19.
Increasingly, the social work profession recognizes the need for more attention to self-care. Concomitantly, this growing awareness and ethical commitment is fostering a burgeoning self-care movement. However, despite recognition about the importance of self-care, there is a paucity of research that explicitly examines self-care practices among social workers. This cross-sectional study examined the self-care practices of individuals employed in social work capacities (n=1,011) in one southeastern state in the United States. Findings suggest that participants in the sample engaged in personal and professional self-care practices only moderately. Further, data suggest significant group differences in the practice of self-care, by relationship status, educational attainment, health status, and current financial situation, respectively. Overall, results indicate self-care as a potential area of improvement for participants in this study, in general, and perhaps for individuals employed in social work contexts, more generally.
Despite growing interest in self-care, few studies have explicitly examined the self-care practices of healthcare social workers. This exploratory study investigated self-care among practitioners (N = 138) in one southeastern state. Overall, data suggest that healthcare social workers only moderately engaged in self-care. Additionally, analyses revealed significant differences in self-care practices by financial stability, overall health, and licensure status, respectively. Interestingly, perceived health status and current financial situation were significant predictors for overall self-care practices. After a brief review of the literature, this narrative will explicate findings, elucidate discussion points, identify salient implications, and conclude with areas for future research.
In recent years, there has been an increased emphasis on the importance of self-care for psychologists and other mental health professionals. With the growth of positive psychology and preventive medicine, self-care is an emerging topic, promulgated as a means of avoiding the adverse effects of stress and promoting professional functioning and well-being. However, the research on self-care is limited because of the lack of an empirically based, psychometrically sound measure of this construct. Thus, the purpose of this project was to develop a measure of professional self-care. Professional psychologists were the focus of study, with the goal being to develop a measure that can be used in this population and similar groups of professionals. Based on expert feedback and a preliminary study of 422 licensed psychologists in Illinois, a 5-factor, 21-item scale was created. Factor analysis identified the following self-care factors: Professional Support, Professional Development, Life Balance, Cognitive Awareness, and Daily Balance. Preliminary analyses provided initial support for the validity of the 5 factors. A follow-up study was conducted with a second sample of clinical psychologists. The 5-factor structure provided a good fit to the data with the second sample. Thus, based on factor analysis and validity data, a 5-factor, 21-item Professional Self-Care Scale was established for further study and use in future research. (PsycINFO Database Record
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has profoundly restructured American health care. Numerous social work authors have commented on the importance of the ACA?s reforms to social work practice, education, and research. This article summarizes the literature, adds relevant information, and makes recommendations for future actions. The policy, opinion, and peer-reviewed literatures were systematically reviewed. Sixty-three publications appeared between 2010 and 2015 are included. Five themes emerged, as follows: 1) the crucial provisions of the ACA, 2) the natural affinity of social work and the ACA reforms, 3) curricular adaptations needed to address changing workforce needs, 4) areas for continued social work advocacy, and 5) opportunities for high-impact social work research. This article provides a comprehensive introduction to the ACA, its reforms, and opportunities for social work to assume a high visibility leadership role in implementing the reforms, with particular emphasis on needed curricular changes and opportunities for research.
This study explored the effects of self-care practices and perceptions on positive and negative indicators of professional quality of life, including burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and compassion satisfaction among MSW practitioners. Results reveal that while social workers value and believe self-care is effective in alleviating job-related stress, they engage in self-care on a limited basis. Findings indicate that MSW programs and employers do not teach social workers how to effectively engage in self-care practice. Various domains of self-care practice contribute differently to indicators of professional quality of life. This study sheds light on the under-studied relationship between social worker self-care and professional quality of life, provides insights into the types of activities practiced and not practiced by MSW practitioners, and identifies gaps between perceived value and effective teaching of self-care. Implications exist for social work educators and employers and the potential to support a healthier, sustainable workforce.
In light of diminishing resources in service settings, and the subsequent high risk for worker burnout, self care remains an important vehicle for promoting worker well-being. However, traditional definitions of self care are based in formulations about the nature of the self that don’t reflect paradigmatic shifts in social work practice that place increased emphasis on the multiplicity of workers’ selves, use of self and a collaborative frame for the worker–client relationship. Thus, a reconsidered definition of self care is proposed that reflects intersubjective, relational, and recovery-oriented frames for practice and posits strategies for self care that make the self appear.
Self-care is widely recognized as critical to social work practice, yet little empirical support or practical guidance exists in the literature to steer social workers in its implementation. Self-care may not only be crucial in preventing secondary traumatic stress, burnout, and high staff turnover, but it can serve as a means of empowerment that enables practitioners to proactively and intentionally negotiate their overall health, well-being, and resilience. The purpose of this article is threefold: (a) to explore current conceptualizations of self-care; (b) to provide a clear conceptual definition of and an applied framework for self-care; and (c) to explicate the utility of this framework for social work practitioners, students, educators, and social service agencies& supervisors and administrators.
Burnout is a very prevalent type of stress among health professionals. It affects their well-being, performance, and attitude toward patients. This study assessed the effectiveness of a training program for primary health care professionals designed to reduce burnout and mood disturbance, increase empathy, and develop mindfulness.
Pragmatic randomized controlled trial with pre- and postintervention measurements of 68 primary health care professionals (43 in the intervention and 25 in the control group) in Spain. The intervention consisted of presentations of clinically relevant topics, mindfulness-based coping strategies, mindfulness practice, yoga, and group discussions (8 sessions of 2.5 hours per week plus a 1-day session of 8 hours). Outcome measures included the Maslach Burnout Inventory, Profile of Mood States, Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy, Baer's Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire, and a questionnaire on changes in personal habits and mindfulness practice. Measurements were performed at baseline and after 8 weeks.
The intervention group improved in the 4 scales measured. The magnitude of the change was large in total mood disturbance (difference between groups -7.1; standardized effect-size [SES] 1.15) and mindfulness (difference between groups 11; SES 0.9) and moderate in the burnout (difference between groups -7; SES 0.74) and empathy scales (difference between groups 5.2; SES 0.71). No significant differences were found in the control group.
Our study supports the use of mindfulness-based programs as part of continuing professional education to reduce and prevent burnout, promote positive attitudes among health professionals, strengthen patient-provider relationships, and enhance well-being.
In the post + retrospective pretest method of measuring change, evaluators ask the respondents to recall pre-intervention status at posttest time. Research has produced strong evidence in support of this approach over the pretest-posttest approach to measuring change. However, no research has yet to examine and compare different forms of retrospective methods. We compared three retrospective methods of measuring elementary grade teachers’ self-reported change in mathematics instructional practices: the post + retrospective pretest method (reporting current practices and earlier practices), the post + perceived change method (reporting current practice and the amount and direction of change), and the perceived change method (reporting only the amount and direction of change). Teachers in the post + retrospective pretest condition reported least change, followed by teachers in the post + perceived change condition; teachers in the perceived change condition reported the greatest change. We can explain our findings in terms of differential satisficing (the tendency to exert minimal effort in responding) caused by differences in cognitive demands among the three methods. Greater task difficulty leads to greater satisficing, which causes respondents to resort more to socially desirable responses. A greater tendency to provide socially desirable responses leads to relying on expected implicit theory of change and subsequently reporting greater change in instructional practices.
The present study investigates the role of both occupational stress, and two coping methods, problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping, in the prediction of job satisfaction among health care professionals. Utilizing a survey questionnaire, data were collected from 168 full-time social workers and 155 nurses. Both groups differed significantly on measures of perceived job stress, job satisfaction and the use of three coping methods. Separate multiple regressions were completed for social workers and nurses to examine the relative influence of job stress and coping on job satisfaction. For both groups, perceived job stress was the greatest contributor to job satisfaction. Some methods of coping also were significantly related to job satisfaction, however, these differed between the two groups.
This article examines the potential impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 on the practice of hospital social work in the United States and its implications for social work education and training. It briefly traces the history of hospital social work, outlines some contemporary issues in the health care field, particularly those that create persistent health disparities, summarizes the major provisions of the Act that have implications for social work practice, and discusses how social workers in hospital settings might respond effectively to the changes produced by the legislation.
This study challenges assumptions regarding the value and necessity of frequent face-to-face workplace interaction by building upon a theoretical framework for the consequences of telecommuting. Using a multiple mediation approach and path analysis, the study examines the extent to which telework affects job satisfaction through the experiences of work–life conflict, stress due to meetings and interruptions, perceived organizational politics, and information exchange. Results reveal that high-intensity teleworkers (n=89) are more satisfied than office-based employees (n=103) and achieve significant benefits from their work arrangement, with work–life conflict most influential toward job satisfaction. The path model reveals more complex indirect paths linking telework and job satisfaction.
In preparation for the self-care deficit nursing theory conference to be held in Ulm, Germany in 2004, Dorothea Orem and I reflected on the development of nursing science. Orem drafted this paper which I edited. The International Orem Society is sharing this paper with Nursing Science Quarterly as presented to the conference as a memorial to Orem and her work.
This report surveys and evaluates the scientific research on evidence-based healthcare design and extracts its implications for designing better and safer hospitals.
It builds on a literature review conducted by researchers in 2004.
Research teams conducted a new and more exhaustive search for rigorous empirical studies that link the design of hospital physical environments with healthcare outcomes. The review followed a two-step process, including an extensive search for existing literature and a screening of each identified study for the relevance and quality of evidence.
This review found a growing body of rigorous studies to guide healthcare design, especially with respect to reducing the frequency of hospital-acquired infections. Results are organized according to three general types of outcomes: patient safety, other patient outcomes, and staff outcomes. The findings further support the importance of improving outcomes for a range of design characteristics or interventions, including single-bed rooms rather than multibed rooms, effective ventilation systems, a good acoustic environment, nature distractions and daylight, appropriate lighting, better ergonomic design, acuity-adaptable rooms, and improved floor layouts and work settings. Directions for future research are also identified.
The state of knowledge of evidence-based healthcare design has grown rapidly in recent years. The evidence indicates that well-designed physical settings play an important role in making hospitals safer and more healing for patients, and better places for staff to work.
Staff development programs, which focus on imparting and improving intervention skills, are acknowledged as an efficient way to reduce burnout, but few studies have examined this effect. The aim of the present study was to detect any difference in the level of social worker's burnout before and after attending two different skill-development groups, namely group-intervention skills for more experienced social workers and general hospital social-work skills for less experienced. Twenty-five hospital social workers participated in the study. The three dimensions of burnout, namely emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment, changed between the pre-training and post-training measures: personal accomplishment rose by 12.39% and depersonalization fell by 29.75%. The difference was significant for the two dimensions in both groups. Emotional exhaustion significantly declined in the hospital social-work skills group only, and revealed a group-time effect. The level of peer support rose in the hospital-skills group and was positively related to a lowering of emotional exhaustion. This was an exploratory study, with a rather small sample, and the results are preliminary, but they show a promising possibility of burnout reduction among professional workers. Further research on the effect of skill development training on reducing burnout is needed.
The purpose of this study is twofold: (1) to compare stress appraisals, coping strategies, social resources, and burnout at work between social workers, psychologists and nurses; and (2) to assess the effectiveness of appraisals and support in reducing burnout and enhancing effective coping strategies. Questionnaires containing assessments of work stress appraisals, coping strategies used to deal with problems at work, and social support at work, as well as burnout measures of exhaustion, depersonalization, and accomplishment were completed by 249 female professionals (age range 25-61). No differences were observed between the three professions on most psychological measures, except for the depersonalization outcome of burnout, which was significantly lower among psychologists than among nurses or social workers. High challenge/control appraisal of the job was directly related to all burnout outcomes, contributing to less exhaustion and depersonalization and to more personal accomplishment. The challenge/control appraisal was also negatively associated with emotion-focused coping. By comparison, the stress/load appraisal contributed to more exhaustion at work, while emotion-focused coping contributed to higher depersonalization. Social support was associated with higher challenge/control appraisal, with the latter mediating support effects on burnout. These data suggest that the perception of challenge/control in one's work may be an important factor in preventing work burnout in the three professions tested in the study.
What are the positive and negative consequences of telecommuting? How do these consequences come about? When are these consequences more or less potent? The authors answer these questions through construction of a theoretical framework and meta-analysis of 46 studies in natural settings involving 12,883 employees. Telecommuting had small but mainly beneficial effects on proximal outcomes, such as perceived autonomy and (lower) work-family conflict. Importantly, telecommuting had no generally detrimental effects on the quality of workplace relationships. Telecommuting also had beneficial effects on more distal outcomes, such as job satisfaction, performance, turnover intent, and role stress. These beneficial consequences appeared to be at least partially mediated by perceived autonomy. Also, high-intensity telecommuting (more than 2.5 days a week) accentuated telecommuting's beneficial effects on work-family conflict but harmed relationships with coworkers. Results provide building blocks for a more complete theoretical and practical treatment of telecommuting.
The risks in the human services workplace to social workers’ emotional, psychological, and physical well-being is well known. Self-care is seen as a way to minimize workplace risks, including burnout, compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, and vicarious traumatization. This article examines the reported self-care practices of social work practitioners and their agencies, and the barriers that get in the way. Forty-two participants worked in agency settings and supervised students. All reported engaging in some type of self-care practice, and almost all reported some type of support from their workplace; however, 38 reported barriers to self-care. Even with self-care practices in place personally and in the workplace, obstacles remain. Social work educators need to be cognizant of these factors to ensure that field supervisors are well supported in their own self-care practices and are equipped to assist students in developing these positive practices early in their careers to help sustain workers in the social work profession.
This special issue seeks to deepen the social work profession’s conceptualization of self-care and promote effective implementation of self-care in professional practice. The coeditors and contributors advocate for self-care as an essential element of ethical professional practice. As the call for papers stated, “Self-care affects a myriad of aspects of social work practice, such as staff morale, professional accountability, ethical conduct, burnout, and ultimately the health of our organizations and the profession itself.”
Self-Care as Core Professional Practice
In the last few years, self-care has become somewhat of a buzzword. This buzz is certainly an improvement from the previous void in recognizing the need for self-care. Having worked for over a decade to raise awareness about self-care, we (the coeditors) do not want to dismiss the value of a buzz, which creates much-needed initial awareness. However, this buzz can become problematic if the initial understanding of self-care is not expanded and taken as a serious professional commitment—not just an optional add-on or superficial fad.
Self-care can be an important tool in assuaging professional burnout, workplace stress, vicarious or secondary trauma, and other deleterious employment circumstances. Despite this importance, few studies have examined self-care among social work practitioners. This exploratory study examined the self-care practices of self-identified social workers (N = 2,934) throughout the United States. Primary data were collected with an electronic survey. Data indicate that social workers in the sample engage in moderate self-care practices. Analyses revealed group differences in self-care by several variables including geographic locale of participants' primary place of employment, race, educational level, and social work licensing status, among others. Significant predictors of self-care included perceived health status (self-report), education level, being a supervisor, and financial status. Overall, findings from this study indicate the need for a systemic response to improving self-care practices among social workers.
Self-care can be integral to assuaging inimical employment conditions experienced by the child welfare workforce. However, few studies have explicitly examined ways to improve self-care competency among this practitioner group. This study employed a retrospective pre/post design to assess the impact of a self-care training for child welfare workers (N = 131) in one southeastern state in the United States. Overall, results indicate child welfare workers were satisfied with the training content and materials. As well, analyses revealed significant increases in knowledge about self-care, confidence in skills to engage in self-care, and values related to self-care. Overall, findings from this study suggest that brief self-care trainings can beneficial to child welfare workers and that more research in this area is warranted.
Despite the importance of self-care to social workers, in general, and those employed in child welfare contexts, specifically, few studies have explicitly examined this area of inquiry. This research brief explores the personal and professional of social workers employed in child welfare (N = 623) in the United States (U.S.). Overall, findings indicate that participants engage in minimal amounts of self-care. Analyses revealed significant differences in self-care by Race, Education Level, Licensing Status, Marital Status, Supervision Status, Professional Organization Membership, and Financial Status, respectively. Findings indicate the need for more explicit attention to education and training related to self-care, and more organizational supports for child welfare workers.
Despite the importance of self-care to child welfare workers, few studies have explicitly examined this area of inquiry (Bloomquist, Wood, Friedmeyer-Trainor, & Kim, 2015; Grise-Owens, Miller, & Eaves, 2016; Lee & Miller, 2013; Miller, Donohue-Dioh, Niu, & Shalash, 2018; Newell, 2018). This research brief explores the personal and professional of child welfare workers employed in child welfare (N = 623) in the United States (U.S.). After pithily examining relevant background information, this brief will explicate findings from this study and discuss salient implications derived from the data.
Foster parents play a critical role in the lives of youth in foster care, experience myriad stressors, have high rates of turnover and in turn the child welfare system ultimately over relies on relatively small numbers of caregivers to care for the majority of foster children. While there is a small literature that includes an examination of how foster parents care for themselves and maintain their well-being, to date there is only one study that has primarily examined foster parents’ self-care. The purpose of the current article is to highlight the need for greater attention to foster parent self-care and integrate the research literature about foster parent stressors and self-care to propose a conceptual model of foster parent self-care. This manuscript describes the stressors faced by foster parents to illustrate the need for greater attention to foster parent self-care. It then proposes a conceptual model that seeks to expand the notion of self-care beyond a set of practices to an understanding of self-care practices as the result of internal and external factors that contribute to or inhibit foster parent self-care. The authors make recommendations for foster parents, researchers and agencies interested in improving the health and well-being of foster parents.
The retrospective pre-post design affords many benefits to program staff and, accordingly, has piqued renewed interest among applied program evaluators. In particular, the field has witnessed increasing application of a post-program-only data collection strategy in which only posttest and retrospective pretest data are collected. A post-program-only assessment strategy takes considerably less time than is required for collecting pre-program data and presumably has the added benefit of eliminating the impact of response-shift bias. Response-shift bias occurs when the knowledge, skills, or experiences participants gain through program participation leads them to interpret questionnaire items in a qualitatively different manner at pretest versus posttest. In this article, we discuss the strengths and weaknesses associated with administering retrospective pretest assessments and underscore the importance of thoroughly evaluating any application of a retrospective measurement strategy prior to its broader implementation. We provide a practical illustration of this evaluation process using a mixed-method study that assesses one measure of parenting education program effectiveness-the Parenting Skills Ladder.
Indubitably, the challenges facing health-care social workers are becoming increasingly complex. Whilst these problematic professional circumstances compound the need for self-compassion among health-care social workers, few studies, if any, have explicitly examined self-compassion among this practitioner group. This cross-sectional study explored self-compassion among a sample of practitioners (N = 138) in one southeastern state. Results indicate that health-care social workers in this sample engage in self-compassion only moderately. Further, occupational and demographic/life characteristics (e.g., age, years practicing social work, average hours worked per week, health status, and relationship status, among others) are able to predict self-compassion scores. After a terse review of relevant literature, this paper will explicate findings from this study, discuss relevant points derived from said findings, and identify salient implication for health-care social work praxis.
Child welfare workers experience higher rates of vicarious trauma, workplace stress, and compassion fatigue, when compared to other social service workers. Increasingly, social service agencies, in general, and child welfare agencies, specifically, recognize the importance of self-care in assuaging these problematic employee outcomes. However, research that explicitly examines the self-care practices of child welfare workers in nominal. This study brief explores the self-care practices of child welfare workers (N = 222) in one southeastern state. Results reveal that child welfare workers only engage in self-care at moderate levels. Additionally, data suggests that variables such as health status, current financial status, and relationship status significantly impact personal and professional self-care practices, respectively. After a terse review of relevant literature, this brief will explicate findings associated with this study, and identify salient discussion points and implications for child welfare training, practice, and research.
Recent attempts to reduce internal invalidity in studies employing pretest/posttest self-report in dices of improvement have included the refinement of methodologies employing retrospective reports of pre-treatment states. The present study investigated the operation of social desirability and impression management response bias on such retrospective measures. The results do not support the hypothesis of greater bias on retrospective measurement and, in fact, are in a direction that might suggest an in terpretation of reduced bias on such measures. The results also continue to support superior validity of retrospective over traditional pretest/posttest in dices of improvement following treatment.
Evaluations of experimental interventions that employ self-report measures are subject to an instrumentation-related source of contamination known as response-shift bias. Retrospective pretest ratings are recommended as one way in which response-shift bias might be attenuated. Research is reviewed that demonstrates response-shift effects and the superiority of retrospective ratings over traditional self-report pretest ratings in providing a measure of change. The current status of retrospection in psychological research is also reviewed, and issues are considered for research needed to identify the unique strengths and limitations of retrospective approaches. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Despite the tremendous growth of telework and other forms of virtual work, little is known about its impact on organizational commitment and turnover intentions, nor the mechanisms through which telework operates. Drawing upon the conservation of resources model as the theoretical framework, I posit telework’s impact is the result of resource stockpiling and flexibility as teleworkers are able to yield work and personal benefits and protect themselves from resource depletion in the office. Using a sample of 393 professional-level teleworkers in one organization, I therefore investigate the intervening role of work exhaustion in determining commitment and turnover intentions. Results indicate that telework is positively related to commitment and negatively related to turnover intentions, such that a higher degree of teleworking is associated with more commitment to the organization and weakened turnover intentions. Moreover, work exhaustion is found to mediate the relationships between teleworking and both commitment and turnover intentions.
The findings of two consecutive surveys of job satisfaction and burnout in national samples of health care social workers are presented. Between 1979 and 1989, there were significant increases in the proportion of social workers employed in private versus public agencies, in quantitative workload, and in social workers' perceptions of the challenges presented by their jobs. Role conflict and role ambiguity, lack of comfort, and dissatisfaction with financial rewards emerged as significant predictors of depersonalization and burnout. However, a significant increase in social workers' feelings of personal accomplishment also occurred, and high challenge emerged as a significant predictor of sense of effectiveness.
This article reports the results of a survey concerning the differential assignment of tasks to social workers with bachelor of social work (BSW) and master of social work (MSW) degrees by social work directors in Canadian hospitals. It also provides data relative to the variation in amount of supervision provided to workers in those settings where both BSW-level and MSW-level workers perform the same tasks. It is intended that this study will yield useful information to assist the profession in defining the appropriate assignment of tasks to hospital social workers.
Unpacking self-care:The connection between mindfulness, self-compassion, and self-care for counselors
- C Coleman
- C Martensen
- R Scott
- N Indelicato
Coleman, C., Martensen, C., Scott, R., & Indelicato, N. (2016). Unpacking self-care:The
connection between mindfulness, self-compassion, and self-care for counselors.
Counseling & Wellness:A Professional Counseling Journal, 5, 1-8.
Simple self-care for therapists: Restorative practices to weave through your workday
- A Bush
Bush, A. (2015). Simple self-care for therapists: Restorative practices to weave through your
workday. W.W. Norton & Company.
Self-care in social work
- K Cox
- S Steiner
Cox, K., & Steiner, S. (2013). Self-care in social work. NASW Press.
An invitation to self-care: Why learning to nurture yourself Is the key to the life you've always wanted, 7 principles for abundant living
- T Cleantis
Cleantis, T. (2017). An invitation to self-care: Why learning to nurture yourself Is the key to the
life you've always wanted, 7 principles for abundant living. Hazelden Publishing.
Self-care handbook. White Hat Communications
- E Grise-Owens
- J Miller
- M Eaves
Conceptualizing an organizational wellness initiative: The Volunteers of America project
- J J Miller
- E Grise-Owens
- D Addison
- L Escobar-Ratliff
Miller, J. J., Grise-Owens, E., Addison, D., & Escobar-Ratliff, L. (2016). Conceptualizing an
organizational wellness initiative: The Volunteers of America project. Paper presented at the
council on social work education (CSWE) annual planning meeting (APM) in Atlanta,
November 2016. Georgia.
Coping with occupational stress in healthcare: A comparison of social workers and nurses
- Z Gellis
Gellis, Z. (2008). Coping with occupational stress in healthcare: A comparison of social workers
and nurses. Administration in Social Work, 26(3), 37-52. https://doi.org/10.1300/
J147v26n03_03