"I Don't Want to Go to Work": A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Healthcare Worker Experiences from the Front- and Side-Lines of COVID-19.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers (HCW) were categorized as "essential" and "non-essential", creating a division where some were "locked-in" a system with little ability to prepare for or control the oncoming crisis. Others were "locked-out" regardless of whether their skills might be useful. The purpose of this study was to systematically gather data over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic from HCW through an interprofessional lens to examine experiences of locked-out HCW. This convergent parallel mixed-methods study captured perspectives representing nearly two dozen professions through a survey, administered via social media, and video blogs. Analysis included logistic regression models of differences in outcome measures by professional category and Rapid Identification of Themes from Audio recordings (RITA) of video blogs. We collected 1299 baseline responses from 15 April 2020 to 16 March 2021. Of those responses, 12.1% reported no signs of burnout, while 21.9% reported four or more signs. Qualitative analysis identified four themes: (1) professional identity, (2) intrinsic stressors, (3) extrinsic factors, and (4) coping strategies. There are some differences in the experiences of locked-in and locked-out HCW. This did not always lead to differing reports of moral distress and burnout, and both groups struggled to cope with the realities of the pandemic.

COVID-19 and Massage Therapy Education Impact and Future Implications.

Massage therapy education processes, practices, and research are rarely described in the scientific literature, and the Covid-19 pandemic may have caused dramatic shifts in how massage therapists were being educated. To date, findings of the impact of the pandemic pivot on massage therapy education have yet to be reported. This editorial explores the trends in hands-on education of other professions during the pandemic and relates these trends to massage therapy education. Currently, it is unknown how institutions supported massage therapy educators in preparation for the shift to online and hybrid learning.

Chronicling moral distress among healthcare providers during the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal analysis of mental health strain, burnout, and maladaptive coping behaviours.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented many novel situations that have amplified the presence of moral distress in healthcare. With limited resources to protect themselves against the virus and strict safety regulations that alter the way they work, healthcare providers have felt forced to engage in work behaviours that conflicted with their professional and personal sense of right and wrong. Although many providers have experienced moral distress while being physically in the workplace, others suffered while at home. Some healthcare providers worked in facilities that were unable to open during the pandemic due to restrictions, which could contribute to a sense of powerlessness and guilt. The current study assessed whether the ability to see patients each week impacted the relationship between an employee's moral distress and their mental health strain, burnout, and maladaptive coping. A total of 378 healthcare providers responded to weekly surveys over the course of 7 months (April 2020-December 2020). Hierarchical linear modeling techniques were used to examine the study variables over time. Results showed that moral distress predicted an individual's mental health strain and burnout, even after controlling for the prior week. However, moral distress was not a significant predictor of maladaptive coping. Interestingly, there was not a significant difference between the average ratings of moral distress between those who were able, and those who were not able to see patients, meaning that both groups experienced symptoms of moral distress. However, cross-level moderation results indicated that the ability to see patients magnified the relationships between moral distress and mental health strain and burnout over time. Implications of the results and recommendations for how moral distress should be addressed among healthcare providers are discussed.

Implementation of iPads to Increase Compliance With Delivery of New Parent Education in the Mother-Baby Unit: Retrospective Study.

BACKGROUND: Abusive head trauma (AHT) is a serious health problem affecting more than 3000 infants annually in the United States. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that health care providers counsel new parents about the dangers of AHT. Previous studies demonstrate that parental education is effective at reducing AHT events. South Carolina law requires hospitals to offer all new parents with the opportunity to watch an educational video about AHT. This mandate is addressed in different ways at the several delivery centers within a large South Carolina health care system with a range of viewing methods utilized, from DVD players to mobile workstations to personal devices. Frequent technical barriers and workflow inefficiencies resulted in low rates of compliance with this mandate at several campuses. To improve compliance of parent viewing of this educational video, the health care system standardized video viewing protocol across all campuses by implementing the use of iPads for parental education. Existing literature suggests that patient education can be improved in the hospital setting by utilizing tablet computers, but our literature search identified a gap in research around the education of parents and caregivers during hospitalization for childbirth. We used the implementation of an iPad-based parental education delivery protocol to evaluate whether tablet computers can improve compliance with delivering new parent education in the hospital setting. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to evaluate whether the standardized use of iPads to deliver education in the mother-baby unit resulted in improved rates of parents' acceptance of the opportunity to view an educational video about AHT. METHODS: We interviewed physicians and nurses to determine what previous protocols were in place to educate new parents before a standardized iPad-based protocol was implemented across 6 campuses of a large South Carolina health care system. A retrospective study was conducted by review of 5231 records from across the 6 campuses to determine the pre- and postintervention compliance rates of viewing the AHT educational video by parents in the mother-baby unit. RESULTS: Compliance increased overall (P<.001) across sites from an average of 41.93% (SD 46.24) to 99.73% (SD 0.26) (φ=0.510). As much as 4 of 6 locations saw a significant increase in compliance rates after introducing the iPad intervention (P<.001). The remaining 2 locations that showed no significant difference (P>.05) had very high rates of preintervention compliance. CONCLUSIONS: Following the implementation of a standardized iPad-based protocol to deliver new parent education, there was a significant improvement in the percentage of new parents who viewed an educational video about AHT in the mother-baby unit. Based on these results, other health care providers should consider iPads to be a feasible and effective method for delivering hospital-based education to families in the mother-baby unit.