Gender, Racial Disparities in COVID-19 Workforce Stress Levels

Six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, mothers of color who held clinical care roles at an academic health center expressed the highest rates of stress related to caregiving, productivity, and career development, according to new workforce management research published in JAMA Network Open that highlights employee disparities.

These findings could have serious consequences for the healthcare workforce, which was seeing dwindling numbers even prior to the pandemic. This latest data suggests that even more clinical professionals may rethink their medical careers, and there could be some disparities in that.

A total of 5,030 faculty, staff, and trainees from the University of Utah Health completed the survey in August of 2020, six months after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results show widespread stress related to caregiving, decreased productivity, and career development.

One in two respondents with children reported that parenting and managing virtual education for their children were stressors (49 percent and 50 percent, respectively).

Among parents, 45 percent felt a lot or a great deal of worry about their ability to provide care and schooling for their children once school started. Meanwhile, 81 percent reported finding it somewhat or extremely difficult to balance childcare and work responsibilities. 

While 27 percent of all respondents felt their productivity increased, 39 percent felt their productivity decreased. Over half of faculty respondents (55 percent) and 60 percent of trainees perceived decreased productivity.

Additionally, 47 percent of all participants were worried about COVID-19 impacting their career development. Trainees faced this fear to a greater degree, with 64 percent being highly concerned about COVID-19’s impact on their career.

Across all participants, 1,061 (21 percent) considered leaving the workforce, and 1,505 (30 percent) considered reducing their hours.

High stress levels related to caregiving, decreased productivity, and career development were more prevalent among women, workers who provide clinical care, those who have children at home, and people of color. This comes as people of color are underrepresented in the medical workforce, the researchers pointed out.

Additionally, these individuals considered leaving the workforce or reducing their hours at higher rates.

Six in 10 respondents noted that the continued opportunity to work from home would help manage home and work-balance integration. Seven in 10 respondents called for more flexibility in scheduling (68 percent), and 61 percent requested knowledge of their work-training schedule a month in advance to help create a better work-life balance.

Over half of the respondents (57 percent) also noted that reporting to a person who understands work-life struggles would be helpful in managing their work-life balance.

The researchers explained that although academic health centers cannot instantaneously cure all the stressors that employees face, healthcare leaders have substantial opportunities to improve the employee experience.

“Given the disproportionate impact COVID-19 has on employees of health systems, institutions must find ways to support their employees, both in terms of workplace cultural adaptations and assistance with familial responsibilities,” the study authors wrote.

"Our findings suggest that institutional policies could be developed to support all employees, including families, by addressing telecommuting policies and schedule flexibility, as well as providing expanded support options to address psychological stress of employees and trainees and the educational and direct care needs of their children,” the authors continued.

While some workers with children under the age of 18 responded that they would like to place their children in temporary childcare center settings, the majority preferred assistance in home childcare through virtual or in-person tutoring or joining groups of like-minded parents and forming “pods.”

“The development of new, high-impact stopgap measures, such as tutoring and resource matching, provides an opportunity to meet acute needs related to COVID-19,” the authors wrote.

The researchers also noted that since most academic medical centers already offer a variety of services, widespread communication surrounding existing resources may help increase access and in turn relieve stress among workers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought attention to the struggles parents face in finding affordable childcare, particularly when school is unexpectedly closed. This new data may serve to guide healthcare industry leaders as they work to improve workforce satisfaction beyond COVID-19.

Proper healthcare workforce management is crucial, as preliminary data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that while US jobs increased by 916,000 overall last month, hospitals and health systems lost 600 jobs. This is the third consecutive month of decreases in health system jobs.