A multidisciplinary team from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP), CINTESIS, and INED (ESE.IPP) is surveying doctors and nurses on factors associated with quality of professional life and moral distress in health professionals during the pandemic of COVID-19.
The study focuses on physicians and nurses working in Portuguese public or private hospitals, in emergency, intensive and intermediate care or hospitalization. This includes professionals who deal with patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 and those who do not.
The aim is to “know and understand the factors that positively or negatively influence these professionals’ quality of life at work”, using an online survey,
“The pandemic posed new challenges to health care workers, who may have developed psychological symptoms such as fear, insecurity, anxiety, and compassion fatigue”, refers Ivone Duarte, professor at FMUP, a researcher at CINTESIS and the project’s coordinator together with Carla Serrão (INED).
According to the researchers, “compassion fatigue” can affect practitioners’ physical health, performance, and efficiency, and even increase the likelihood of errors, with consequences for the quality of care.
The team is also looking at the “moral distress” of these professionals, arising, for example, from their inability to decide or act in the way that would be ethically most appropriate. This inability may result, for example, from “institutional obstacles”.
We hope the findings of this work will “promote actions to prevent and treat compassion fatigue, enhance job satisfaction and reduce secondary traumatic stress and burnout.”
The researchers believe it will also be possible to “improve the performance levels of professionals, namely through greater efficiency, effectiveness, and quality in the provision of health care.
The online survey is available here. More information about the study can be obtained by emailing email.