COVID-19 Frontline healthcare worker study

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant impacts on the healthcare workforce, amplifying pre-existing stressors and introducing new mental health challenges for this group.

This cumulative stress and pressure on frontline healthcare workers are now resulting in heightened job-related stress, intention to leave, and workforce shortages. This underscores the importance of developing new approaches and support systems to tackle these concerns and minimize long-term concequences.

To help address these issues, our team of mental health researchers at Deakin University and Eastern Health have led a three year longitudinal study investigating the impact of COVID-19 on frontline healthcare workers and their families. The primary goal of this project is to understand the impacts of COVID-19 on frontline healthcare workers’ mental health, wellbeing and families, with the aim of creating evidence-based resources that can aid the development of targeted treatments and supports for this cohort.

Preliminary findings from this research suggests the frequent workplace changes, health anxieties, increased workload, community conflicts, and relationship stressors have led to severe impacts on their physical, mental and social health, and intensifying intention to leave and career motivations.

See here for further details on results