Home care nurses' and managers' work environment during the Covid-19 pandemic: increased workload, competing demands, and unsustainable trade-offs

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Abstract

Little research exists on how home care nursing personnel have experienced the Covid-19 pandemic. This qualitative study explores the work environment related challenges nurses and managers in home care faced during the pandemic. We discuss these challenges in relation to the Demand-Control-Support Model and reflect on how the organizational dynamics associated with them can be understood using the competing pressures model. During the pandemic, home care nurses and managers experienced both an increased workload and psychosocial strain. For managers, the increased complexity of work was a major problem. We identify three key takeaways related to sustainable crisis management: 1) to support managers' ability to provide social support to their personnel, 2) to increase crisis communication preparedness, and 3) to apply a holistic perspective on protective gear use. We also conclude that the competing pressures model is useful when exploring the dynamics of the work environment in complex organizational contexts.

Original languageEnglish
Article number104056
Number of pages8
JournalApplied Ergonomics
Volume111
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023 Sept

Bibliographical note

Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Nursing
  • Work Sciences

Free keywords

  • Humans
  • Workload psychology
  • Working Conditions
  • Pandemics
  • COVID-19
  • Home Care Services
  • Nurses
  • Epidemiology

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