The Role of Work Engagement in Facing the COVID-19 Pandemic among Mental Healthcare Workers: An Italian Study to Improve Work Sustainability during Emergency Situations

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers faced an emergency that had significant psychological impacts on them. In this study, an investigation regarding work engagement as a protective factor for well-being was conducted on a sample of Italian healthcare workers in the field of mental health. Correlation and linear regression analyses were run on scores of standardized questionnaires about work engagement, burnout, resilience, stress, and coping strategies. Results indicate that work engagement is positively correlated with resilience, while it is negatively correlated with burnout and stress, particularly caused by personal attacks at work. As concerns the use of functional or dysfunctional coping strategies, negative correlations between work engagement and problem avoidance and emotional distress strategies were found. In conclusion, work engagement was confirmed to be an important protective factor that should be promoted among mental healthcare professionals to help them deal with health emergencies and to improve the psychological sustainability of the work.

Exploring Psychological and Socio-Economic Impact of Covid 2019 on Healthcare Workers in India: Evidence from Delhi-NCR Hospitals

“…Strategies adopted to cope with stress being a crucial factor caught the attention of many researchers. Emotional reactions and use of coping mechanisms varied by professional roles of HCWs, however, on average, factors such as social status, positive attitude towards stressful situations, seeking social support, avoidance strategies and working with covid patients, abilities to solve problems and turning to religion are not found to be associated with stress levels [46][47][48][49][50] .…”

“…It is reported that during any stressful situation, religion and social support are the most common strategies that have been adopted to reduce levels of stress 46,51,58,72,73 . Many studies have categorised coping mechanisms into two types; problem-focused (active coping, planning, and use of instrumental support) and emotion-focused (use of emotional support, acceptance, positive reframing, religion, humour, substance use, self-distraction, self-blame, denial, behaviour disengagement, and venting) 46,50,74 .…”

Work Engagement and Burnout in a Private Healthcare Unit in Greece

“…Healthcare workers face a heightened risk of occupational burnout, due to factors such as demanding workloads, a perceived lack of control, and insufficient extrinsic and intrinsic job rewards. Conversely, the contribution of work engagement to the psychological well-being of workers is substantial [1,2]. Work engagement is defined as a fulfilling, work-related positive state of mind composed of three dimensions: Vigor, Dedication, and Absorption.…”

“…Work engagement is positively associated with resilience and is considered the opposite of burnout [2,30]. Certainly, other researchers, such as Schaufeli and Bakker argue that work engagement and burnout are distinct concepts [31].…”

“…Is there a correlation between work engagement and healthcare professionals' burnout? (research question 5) [2,31,[33][34][35].…”