Live-in migrant home care workers in Germany: Stressors and resilience factors.

BACKGROUND: Thousands of Eastern Europeans find employment caring for older individuals as transmigrating live-in home care workers in private households in Germany. Studies have shown that the stressors threatening their well-being are multifaceted and include inequalities and a high practical and emotional workload, but research on protective factors is still scarce. AIM & METHODS: This qualitative descriptive study focuses on both the stressors and factors that promote care workers' well-being and contribute to their psychological resilience. In guideline-based interviews, 14 female and one male care workers were asked about their stressors and the factors that help them cope. RESULTS: Identified stressors included separation from their own family, strained relationship with either or both the care recipient (dementia) and their relatives (violation of worker´s rights and devaluation of care work), and permanent availability and lack of free time due to a 24-h care schedule. Resilience factors were both external and internal and included positive social relationships, self-determination, experience in care work, and intrinsic job motivation. CONCLUSION: Live-ins reside in an ambiguous setting, exposed to both structural and individual strains. However, external and internal resilience factors contribute to a generally positive attitude toward their job and indicate the agency of this precariously employed group. A socially anchored appreciation of their work and an officially controlled expansion of free time are mandatory to improve the working conditions of live-in care workers.

Individual Stress Burden and Mental Health in Health Care Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Moderating and Mediating Effects of Resilience.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic generated a significant burden on the German health care system, affecting the mental health of health care workers (HCW) in particular. Resilience may serve as an essential protective factor for individuals' well-being. Objective: Our objective was to identify demographic and work-related correlates of individual resilience and to investigate the association between pandemic-related stress, resilience and mental health using different resilience models. Methods: Our sample comprised 1034 German HCW in different medical professions who completed an online survey from 20 April to 1 July 2020. Resilience was assessed using the Resilience Scale-5 (RS-5). The pandemic-related self-reported stress burden was captured by a single item, while depression and anxiety symptoms were measured with the PHQ-2 and GAD-2, respectively. Additionally, various sociodemographic and work-related factors were assessed. Results: Overall, we found high levels of resilience in the sample compared to a German sample before the pandemic, which were significantly associated only with the older age of participants and having children in both univariate and multivariate analyses. Regarding mechanisms of resilience, moderation analysis revealed that low individual resilience and high pandemic-related stress burden independently contributed to both anxiety and depression symptoms while resilience additionally moderated the relationship between stress burden and anxiety symptoms. The link between self-reported stress burden and mental health symptoms was also partially mediated by individual resilience. Conclusion: Taken together, the findings based on the present sample during the COVID-19 pandemic suggest that resilience plays a central role in the mental health of healthcare workers and that resilience-building interventions should be expanded, especially with a focus on younger employees.

Moral Distress in Hospitals During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Web-Based Survey Among 3,293 Healthcare Workers Within the German Network University Medicine.

Objective: The present study aimed to investigate the correlation between moral distress and mental health symptoms, socio-demographic, occupational, and COVID-19-related variables, and to determine differences in healthcare workers' (HCW) moral distress during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: Data from 3,293 HCW from a web-based survey conducted between the 20th of April and the 5th of July 2020 were analyzed. We focused on moral distress (Moral Distress Thermometer, MDT), depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-2, PHQ-2), anxiety symptoms (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2, GAD-2), and increased general distress of nurses, physicians, medical-technical assistants (MTA), psychologists/psychotherapists, and pastoral counselors working in German hospitals. Results: The strongest correlations for moral distress were found with depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, occupancy rate at current work section, and contact with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Nurses and MTA experienced significantly higher moral distress than physicians, psychologists/psychotherapists, and pastoral counselors. The average level of moral distress reported by nurses from all work areas was similar to levels which before the pandemic were only experienced by nurses in intensive or critical care units. Conclusion: Results indicate that moral distress is a relevant phenomenon among HCW in hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, regardless of whether they work at the frontline or not and requires urgent attention.

Measuring COVID-19 Related Health Literacy in Healthcare Professionals-Psychometric Evaluation of the HL-COV-HP Instrument.

BACKGROUND: Thus far, there is no instrument available measuring COVID-19 related health literacy of healthcare professionals. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop an instrument assessing COVID-19 related health literacy in healthcare professionals (HL-COV-HP) and evaluate its psychometric properties. METHODS: An exploratory factor analysis, a confirmatory factor analysis, and descriptive analyses were conducted using data from n = 965 healthcare professionals. Health literacy related to COVID-19 was measured with 12 items, which were adapted from the validated HLS-EU-Q16 instrument measuring general health literacy. RESULTS: Exploratory factor analysis demonstrated that 12 items loaded on one component. After removing one item due to its high standardized residual covariance, the confirmatory factor analysis of a one-factor model with 11 items showed satisfactory model fit (χ2 = 199.340, df = 41, χ2/df = 4.862, p < 0.001, RMSEA = 0.063, CFI = 0.963 and TLI = 0.951). The HL-COV-HP instrument showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha 0.87) and acceptable construct reliability. CONCLUSIONS: The HL-COV-HP is a reliable, valid, and feasible instrument to assess the COVID-19 related health literacy in healthcare professionals. It can be used in hospitals or other healt hcare settings to assess the motivation and ability of healthcare professionals to find, understand, evaluate, and use COVID-19 information.