Using input received from long-term care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian researchers have identified several recommendations aimed at improving future pandemic preparedness, worker mental health and patient care delivery.
Researchers from the University of Calgary used qualitative data gathered from semi-structured interviews of 50 workers at 12 long-term care organizations in Canada between March and July 2021. Their findings were published in the Journal of Long-Term Care.
Study participants were asked a series of open-ended questions on topics of personal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and managing stress. A final question asked the workers their recommendations for how long-term care organizations could be better prepared for another global pandemic.
The researchers identified recommendations for the long-term care industry in seven general categories including risk reduction and compensation, reappraisal of staffing models, creating opportunities for relief from work and spaces for employees to be heard, improving communication with staff, cultivating responsive leadership and improving public accountability.
“Our findings converge with policy recommendations in support of the idea that the mental health of the LTRC (long-term residential care) workforce can be positively attenuated through improved staffing models which entails increasing the supply of staff, revising staffing models, and cultivating the skilled work requirements inherent in LTRC,” the authors wrote.
The study’s authors stressed the importance of employee voices receiving greater input in future policy recommendations about long-term care planning and pandemic preparedness.
“In summary, an overarching finding from our recommendations is that workers can contribute to reforming LTRC policy, and the COVID-19 crisis has created an imperative that appears to support transformation along these lines,” the authors wrote. “Yet shifting complex policy systems such as LTRC also requires reform-minded leaders, an abundance of resources, the support of powerful external actors, and the favor of public opinion.”
