Frontline Workers and Psychological Well-being

Frontline workers like doctors, nurses, and emergency staff are essential in protecting public health. But their jobs can be very stressful because of long working hours, high risk of infection, and emotional challenges. This can lead to anxiety, depression, and burnout among many frontline workers (Pappa et al., 2020).

To support their mental well-being, organizations should provide counseling, peer support, and a positive work environment where they feel valued (Shanafelt et al., 2020). Taking care of frontline workers’ mental health is important so they can continue to care for the community effectively.

References: 

• Pappa, S. et al. (2020). Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 88, 901–907.
• Shanafelt, T. et al. (2020). JAMA, 323(21), 2133–2134.

Frontline workers are the warriers, during COVID-19 their own health was at risk however, they did not care and worked day and night. Sleepless nights, long working hours, regularly dealing with distressed individuals put them at risk of developing secondary traumatic stress, burnout and psychiatric sequelae: depression, anxiety, sleep disorders etc. Resilience building may act as a protective factor for these stressors, one example of that is: CRM ( Community Resiliency Model), 3 hour of CRM training improved mental well-being and reduced the symptoms of secondary traumatic stress.

Refrences:

Grabbe, L., Higgins, M. K., Baird, M., & Pfeiffer, K. M. (2021). Impact of a resiliency training to support the mental well-being of front-line workers: brief report of a quasi-experimental study of the community resiliency model. Medical Care, 59(7), 616-621.

Frontline workers such as healthcare professionals, essential service employees and first responders play a vital role in our lives. They are often exposed to high stress situations and exteremly tense work environment resulting in short and long term mental health problems. Some common symptoms of mental health triggers among frontline workers include depression, anxiety, stress, and additional cognitive and social problems. The mental health and resilience of frontline workers could be supported by workplace interventions, interventions to support basic daily needs, psychological support interventions, pharmacological interventions, or a combination of any or all of these.

References: 

High levels of stress, burnout, and symptoms of poor mental health have been well known among health care workers (HCWs) for several years. Although many health systems include mechanisms to support HCW’s well-being, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the fractures of systems around the world in relation to protecting their health care workforce, which has garnered increased interest in light of developments from the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontline staff, in particular, have been exposed to unprecedented strains. Delivering care during the pandemic impacted their own and their loved one’s safety, and the complexities of the pressures placed them in often difficult and uncomfortable situations for which they had not necessarily been trained. Studies have shown the burden on the physical and mental health of delivering care over long hours under the heat of full personal protective equipment (PPE), the strain of changing guidelines, and the rising rates of infection among HCWs. This anxiety was exacerbated by the high rates of hospital deaths and the added responsibility many HCWs felt to accompany patients during the last moments of their life so they would not die alone. Dowrick et al pointed out the significant emotional labor involved in affective practices to mitigate the limitations arising from physical distancing, such as maintaining communication with patient families and keeping in touch with work colleagues who were also going through a difficult time. Although infection control measures were crucial for limiting the spread of COVID-19, they required complex additions to the workload of HCWs to reorganize necessary interactions at work. Our previous work on this topic additionally highlighted how distancing measures completely disrupted environmental factors that influence HCWs’ well-being, such as leisure time. Not only does the emotion involved in delivering care under these circumstances add copious amounts of burden to HCWs, but the moral injury of caring for patients under time and resource constraints has also been a frequently mentioned factor associated with poor mental health since the start of the pandemic.

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