The role of social and organizational factors in healthcare worker stress during COVID-19: Implications for future crisis management

This investigation analyses the contribution of some socio-organizational factors in stress among healthcare workers regarding COVID-19 pandemic and it centers on the following four cross-cutting organizational aspects: workload from managing patients with COVID-19 discomfort due to protective equipment fear of becoming socially isolated, difficulty involving infection control. It also investigates the association between sociodemographic factors (gender, age, marital status, number of children, professional category and seniority) and stress. Two hundred respondents answered a structured questionnaire, and the data is analyzed in structural equation modeling with SmartPLS software. Stress levels differed significantly and patient care was identified as the most common source; followed by equipment discomfort, infectious risk concerns, and less by social isolation. Among these, it is found that female, married and two or more children carer experienced significantly more stress than male, never married and less than two children carer, occupational category on the contrary had no impact. Moreover, there appeared to be more stress among the older participants. These results underline the role of psycho-organizational factors in caregiver stress and its relation with professional setting and individual characteristics, thus providing relevant information for effective handling of health crises