Exposición a Riesgos Psicosociales de los profesionales de la salud durante el COVID-19 en España

Abstract

Objectives: To examine health indicators and exposure to psychosocial risks of healthcare professionals during the first wave of COVID-19 and compare their evolution one year after the outbreak of the pandemic. Methods: Two cross-sectional studies with independent samples were carried out. The data was extracted from the COTS Survey - COTS 1 was carried out during April-May 2020, corresponding to the first wave of COVID-19, while COTS 2 was carried out one year after the outbreak of the pandemic (April May 2021) -. The data was collected via an online questionnaire through the emails of CCOO affiliates and was addressed to salaried workers residing in Spain. For this study, a second database was extracted from each COTS survey, which included all workers whose occupation was physician, nurse, nursing assistant and geriatric assistant, constituting a sample of n=1,989 healthcare workers for COTS 1 and n=1,716 healthcare workers for COTS 2. Results: Sleep problems, high quantitative demands and high concern about becoming infected and transmitting COVID-19 were transversal during the first wave, while a year later worse perception of health, high work pace, high work-life conflict and low development possibilities stood out. According to occupational class and gender, the most disadvantaged group -compared to the rest in both time sequences and with respect to itself- were geriatric assistants and women, respectively. Conclusions: A deterioration in the working conditions of healthcare professionals has been observed during COVID-19. The prolongation of the pandemic has made the gap between the axes of segregation in the labor market more evident, multiplying the preexisting inequalities between gender and occupational class. Implications for practice: It is necessary to restructure organizational measures, adapting them to class and gender inequalities, in order to improve working conditions and reduce labor demands, as well as associated comorbidities.

Date of Award	14 Sept 2023
Original language	Spanish
Supervisor	María Isabel Fernández Cano (Director) & Maria Feijoo Cid (Director)