Work Stress, Burnout and Mental Health of Academic Staff during the Online teaching due to the Covid-19 Pandemic

This study aims to identify the relationship between work stress, burnout and mental health of academic staff during the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) when the only possible mode of teaching was the fully online mode. It has been hypothesized that there are significant relationships between work stress and mental health among academics;and work stress (work overload, role ambiguity, lack of autonomy) can predict a significant amount of the variance in mental health (anxiety/insomnia, social dysfunction) of academic staff during the online teaching, after taking the possible effect of burnout into consideration. This study involved 106 academic staff (73 females, 33 males) to complete an online survey which included the Work Stress Scale, Burnout Measure, and General Health Questionnaire 28. The findings of this study showed the significant positive relationships between all variables of work stress and mental health;work overload and burnout predicted anxiety/insomnia;lack of autonomy and burnout predicted social dysfunction. These findings have implications for Human Resources practices in efforts in reducing work stress and improving mental health of academic staff during these trying times. © 2022 ACM.

Effectiveness of Medical Rehabilitation of Patients after a New Coronavirus Infection in a Day Hospital

Aim. To investigate the prevalence of clinical manifestations of post-coronavirus syndrome and evaluate the effectiveness of medical rehabilitation course in patients after new coronavirus infection (COVID-19) in a day care hospital, taking into account the severity of the disease course. Material and methods. At the first stage of the study, 203 residents of the Ivanovo region (140 women and 63 men) aged 40 to 80 years who had a new coronavirus infection, who had no more than one year since the onset of the disease, were surveyed on the basis of the Ivanovo State Medical Academy (ISMA) of the Ministry of Health of Russia. For this purpose, “COVID-19 Yorkshire Rehabilitation Screening (C19-YRS)” telephone screening questionnaire was used, developed by groups of rehabilitation therapists from the training medical centers of the National Health Service of Great Britain to identify multisystem functional disorders of patients who have suffered a new coronavirus infection, and to address the need for rehabilitation intervention. At the second stage, 54 patients (38 women and 16 men) aged 29-81 years were examined, who were admitted to the 3rd stage of rehabilitation in the department of medical rehabilitation of patients with somatic diseases of the ISMA Clinic after suffering a new coronavirus infection COVID-19. Among them, 3 groups were formed depending on the severity of the infection: 16 patients with a mild course of the disease made up the 1st group, 20 patients who had a moderate course of coronavirus infection - the 2nd group, 18 patients with a severe course of COVID-19 - 3rd group. Results. The questionnaire showed that COVID-19 survivors had a multisystem decrease in functioning, which was maximally pronounced during the first month from the onset of the disease and did not return to the baseline level for 6-12 months. The most significant disturbances occurred with patients who, due to the severity of the condition, were treated in a hospital. The most lasting symptoms were impaired exercise tolerance and increased fatigue, which had a significant impact on daily life. In patients admitted for rehabilitation, functional impairments and disabilities were detected regardless of the severity of the course of the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19). In patients with a mild course of infection, they were manifested mainly by decreased tolerance to physical load, frequent disorders of sleep function, emotions, volitional and motivational functions, in some patients - by mild disorders of respiratory function and cognitive impairment in the form of reduced volume of cranio-temporal memory. In patients with moderate and severe COVID-19, against the background of impaired exercise tolerance function, sleep function, emotions, volitional and motivational functions, we mainly detected moderate and pronounced respiratory disorders, cognitive disorders, which were manifested by decreased short-term memory and attention concentration, increased attention exhaustion, and bradyphrenia. The functional disorders detected in patients primarily led to limitation of their mobility in the form of walking for long distances, ability to self-care and household activities, ability to work, which before the disease did not cause difficulties for patients. Study of the indexes in dynamics showed the effectiveness of rehabilitation measures in improving the functions, regardless of the severity of the course of coronavirus infection. Conclusion. The findings of the present study justify the necessity of early complex rehabilitation of patients by multidisciplinary rehabilitation team taking into account individually detected functional impairment. Individual rehabilitation program should be developed for each patient taking into account the revealed problems on the basis of problem-oriented approach. © 2022 Rostovskii Gosudarstvennyi Meditsinskii Universitet. All rights reserved.

Will Online Learning Become a New Norm in Higher Education?

The Covid-19 pandemic has been seen by some as the event that will finally make online delivery become a dominant mode in universities. This study reports the preferences of students for online teaching, collaboration, and assessment using survey data gathered after a lengthy period of full online delivery and at a time when students were free to choose conventional, online and hybrid approaches to learning, collaboration and assessment. Most previous research has explored student preferences with respect to specific courses or at the institutional level, but the present study examines students' preferences with respect to their discipline: arts, science and technology, business, hospitality and mathematics. Analyses revealed that students prefer conventional lectures providing that recordings are made available online, but that students prefer small group teaching, collaborative work, assessment, support and other activities to be delivered conventionally. These preferences were broadly similar across students drawn from the different discipline areas, but there was also some variation between the disciplines. Overall the findings suggest that students prefer conventional on-campus teaching, learning and assessment to full online delivery. © 2021 ACM.