In the Shadow of the Pandemic: Examining Therapists’ Perceptions of Work-Related Stress in the Late Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
3. Results
3.1. Description of the Sample
3.2. Work-Related Stress Experienced by Therapists in Comparison to Doctors and Nurses
3.3. Categories of Stressors Mentioned by Therapists
3.3.1. Concerns about Maintaining Quality of Care
3.3.2. Uncertainty about the Future
“Especially when there were the waves, the different waves, and the patients canceled. And simply no patients came. Then there was a time when we weren’t allowed to do video therapy. So, it was a time of absolute financial uncertainty.” (SLT, FGD).
3.3.3. Workload
“I have to do it all myself and that’s working time. It’s a burden with the working time, a workload that is then no longer left for my patients.” (physiotherapist, FGD).
3.3.4. Interactions with Colleagues and Patients
“It’s relatively clear that communication has become much more difficult for whatever reason. We’re actually seeing that people are getting agitated very quickly, feeling attacked or overloaded for all kinds of reasons.” (physiotherapist, FGD).
“We really got to know patients from a different side, where we actually kicked patients out of the practice.” (physiotherapist, FGD).
3.3.5. PPE
“What I still find really difficult is working with FFP2, I honestly admit, because we can’t take breaks during therapy. We simply work to a tight schedule and we can’t take the prescribed break in between. I notice that at the end of the day, I just have a headache.” (physiotherapist, FGD).
3.3.6. Risk of Infection
“It was really the case that we were actually scared. For ourselves. But also, for the patients. Most of the staff were also concerned about protecting others and we were really very careful about that.” (physiotherapist, SSI).
“There is always the issue of risk assessment. Once these regulations come in that say 1.5 m distance, FFP2 mask,… And then look: How risky is my work! And it is absolutely risky. And I have to get close to the mouth of a swallowing patient, which means I can’t avoid gowns and goggles at all. Or at least at the beginning. And I couldn’t get around the mask at all.” (SLT, FGD).
3.3.7. Insufficient Information Flow
“There was no reference book or website where I could look up how the infection was going and what protective measures I had [to implement].” (study participant, SSI).
3.3.8. Lack of Political and Public Recognition
“So we started in the early days of the pandemic, when we were banned from practicing our profession, which hit us hard. [...] And I thought: But we’re still involved in patient care.” (SLT, FGD).
“If I say to several professional groups: ‘You are now systemically relevant, you are part of a task force, you have to work in this pandemic!’ Then I have to take very, very good care of them. And really take care of them and not just let them fall by the wayside and say: ‘Improvise!’” (physiotherapist, FGD).
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Therapists | Nurses | Doctors | Total | |
---|---|---|---|---|
n = 612 | n = 501 | n = 461 | n = 1574 | |
No. (%) | No. (%) | No. (%) | No. (%) | |
Gender | ||||
Female | 473 (77.3) | 397 (79.2) | 274 (59.4) | 1144 (72.6) |
Male | 133 (21.7) | 93 (18.6) | 178 (38.6) | 404 (25.7) |
Not specified | 6 (1.0) | 11 (2.2) | 9 (2.0) | 26 (1.7) |
Age (in years) | ||||
30 or younger | 55 (8.9) | 95 (19.0) | 20 (4.3) | 170 (10.8) |
31–40 | 161 (26.3) | 108 (21.6) | 92 (20.0) | 361 (22.9) |
41–50 | 170 (27.8) | 103 (20.6) | 131 (28.4) | 404 (25.7) |
51–60 | 168 (27.5) | 132 (26.3) | 141 (30.6) | 441 (28.0) |
60 or older | 35 (5.7) | 25 (5.0) | 62 (13.5) | 122 (7.7) |
Not specified | 23 (3.8) | 38 (7.6) | 15 (3.3) | 76 (4.8) |
Professional experience (in years) | ||||
10 or less | 101 (16.5) | 117 (23.4) | 94 (20.4) | 312 (19.8) |
11–20 | 196 (32.0) | 118 (23.6) | 142 (30.8) | 456 (29.0) |
21 or more | 306 (50.0) | 236 (47.1) | 218 (47.3) | 760 (48.3) |
Not specified | 9 (1.5) | 30 (6.0) | 7 (1.5) | 46 (2.9) |
n = 15 | |
---|---|
No. (%) | |
Gender | |
Female | 11 (73.3) |
Male | 4 (26.7) |
Not specified | 0 (0.0) |
Age (in years) | |
30 or younger | 1 (6.7) |
31–40 | 2 (13.3) |
41–50 | 3 (20.0) |
51–60 | 8 (53.3) |
60 or older | 1 (6.7) |
Not specified | 0 (0.0) |
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© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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Johann, S.; Evans, M.; Böttcher, R.; Muller, N.; Buchberger, B.; El Bcheraoui, C.; Weishaar, H. In the Shadow of the Pandemic: Examining Therapists’ Perceptions of Work-Related Stress in the Late Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany. Healthcare 2024, 12, 1933. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12191933
Johann S, Evans M, Böttcher R, Muller N, Buchberger B, El Bcheraoui C, Weishaar H. In the Shadow of the Pandemic: Examining Therapists’ Perceptions of Work-Related Stress in the Late Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany. Healthcare. 2024; 12(19):1933. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12191933
Chicago/Turabian StyleJohann, Smilla, Megan Evans, Rike Böttcher, Nadine Muller, Barbara Buchberger, Charbel El Bcheraoui, and Heide Weishaar. 2024. "In the Shadow of the Pandemic: Examining Therapists’ Perceptions of Work-Related Stress in the Late Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany" Healthcare 12, no. 19: 1933. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12191933