Background:
In 2023, Maudsley learning completed a systematic literature review on the impact of Covid-19 on the health and social care workforce. Our dedicated team executed the research, analysis, synthesis, and provided strategic recommendations for this piece of work. This review was a follow-up of a previous SLR performed in 2021 and it covered papers published in peer-reviewed journals during 2022 in UK.
Papers selected for this systematic review focused on either qualitative or quantitative empirical studies or systematic reviews and meta-analyses that were methodologically robust and provided insightful findings on the experiences and effects of COVID-19 on NHS and social care staff while making useful recommendations for policy and practice.
Methods:
We reviewed 36 robust studies describing factors that impacted the health and wellbeing of health and social care staff and workforce in the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Individual studies were included if they provided important granular evidence on the experiences of staff, such as for example, the experience of staff from minority ethnic groups (N=21). All studies were conducted with the NHS workforce, at different levels and examined their perceptions and experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The staff groups examined by these studies have been the health and socia; care professionals (HSCPs): nurses, midwifes, ambulance workers, healthcare assistants, allied health professionals, pharmacists, social care and mental health workers, GPs, dentists, radiography managers, all working in different settings such as hospitals, clinical services, long-term care facilities, maternity units, hospice inpatient and residential care units.
Findings
Key findings from each research question we investigated have been described below. In the near future, we hope this work will be published in a peer reviewed academic journal where you will be able to read the full description and findings from this systematic review.
RQ1- How has COVID-19 impacted the health and wellbeing of the health and social care and NHS workforce within the UK, and in particular what are the effects of long-term issues such as long COVID?
- Negative experiences of risk management particularly if they were from a minority ethnic group (Quereshi et al., 2022)
- Lack of PPE equipment caused difficulties in staff and impacted their health and wellbeing, especially if the lack of PPE causes an infection (Martin et al., 2022; Pilbeam et al., 2022)
RQ2- What are the effects of long-term issues such as long COVID?
- Higher risk of infection in staff with high physical proximity to others for example those in patient-facing, clinical services, nursing and midwifery, allied health professions, ambulance staff, social care, food retail and distribution, bus and coach drivers, taxi and cab drivers, particularly if from minority ethnic groups and lower paid health professionals (Yanik et al., 2022; Van der Plaat et al., 2022; Inghels et al., 2022)
- Return to work after prolonged sickness absence with long COVID needs a tailored, long-term and flexible approach and this was a strategic recommendation which the organisation should implement to increase the health and safety of their employees for increased retention and staff satisfaction (Davis et al., 2022)
RQ3 - What interventions and measures have been in place to the health and wellbeing of health and social care and NHS staff during and after COVID-19, and what are the current outcomes of these?
- We found that Mindfulness and meditation-based interventions online, on-site-based and combined were effective in improving the health and wellbeing of NHS employees.
- Outcome measures: suicide ideation, depression, anxiety, stress, sleep quality and loneliness and self-compassion (Lekagul et al., 2022).
- Personal resources that had positive impact were; spiritual health, self-discipline, optimism, goal-orientation, resilience (Whitehead et al., 2022)
Impact
The systematic literature review offered valuable findings that have the potential to shape further strategic interventions and the creation of large-scale, evidence-based health and wellbeing programs, staff offers, and employee assistant programmes aimed at enhancing organisational or systemic health service levels.
Project Members:
- Selena Galloway, Organisational Consultant
- Hannah Iannelli, Senior Organisational Consultant
- Aleks Saunders, Evaluation Lead
- Cristina Jianu, Honorary Assistant Psychologist
- Mariola Ruiz, Honorary Assistant Psychologist
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