Short report: social identification, quality of professional life and emotional maladjustment in healthcare providers during the first wave of the COVID-19 emergency.

This research analyzed the effect of professional, organizational and care-unit identifications on both healthcare professionals' quality of professional life and mental health. This research was done in a local hospital in a region of northern Italy which was one of the first regions to be impacted by the first wave of the pandemic. Using a cross-sectional research, a web-based questionnaire was sent to the healthcare professionals. Professional quality of life, professional identifications as well as emotional maladjustment in terms of stress, anxiety and depression were measured. Results indicated that professional and care unit identification were positively linked to increased compassion satisfaction and reduced burnout. Professional identification was negatively associated with secondary traumatic stress as well, while care unit identification was positively associated with vicarious trauma. The negative dimension of the professional quality of life had positive relations with emotional maladjustment. Professional and care unit identifications appeared to have an indirect effect via professional quality of life on maladjustment.

Perceptions of Safety and Stress Among Health Professionals: The Role of Care Unit Identification as a Protective Factor During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The present study aimed to investigate the role of motivational process and coping resources in health professionals during the COVID-19 emergency examining the role of Care Unit Identification and safety climate perception as resources that can help nurses to cope with stressors. A cross-sectional research design was used and 218 nurses completed a self-report questionnaire measuring: Perception of safety, Care Unit identification, Work Engagement, Psychological Distress, and Burnout. Results revealed that Work Engagement was significantly related with Burnout (b = -0.209, 95%CI [-0.309; -0.109]) and Distress (b = -0.355, 95%CI [-0.529; -0.18]) especially when the Care Unit identification is high (b = -0.303, 95%CI [-0.448; -0.157] and b = -0.523, 95%CI [-0.772; -0.275], respectively). The safety perception was positively related to Work Engagement (b = 0.315, 95%CI [0.198; 0.433]) and had an indirect effect on psychological Distress (b = -0.112, 95%CI [-0.181; -0.042]) and Burnout (b = -0.066, 95%CI [-0.105; -0.027]). High levels of both Care Unit identification and perception of safety, along with personal work engagement, appear to protect nurses from burnout and psychological distress. Findings suggest that the effort to improve teamwork identification and ensures an adequate degree of perceived safety for healthcare professionals need to be maintained and reinforced as they positively impact nurses' wellbeing.

A study on COVID-19-related stigmatization, quality of professional life and professional identity in a sample of HCWs in Italy.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Perceived COVID-19-related stigmatizations have a strong impact on healthcare workers' wellbeing and quality of professional life, decreasing satisfaction and increasing fatigue. This work aims to investigate the role of professional identification in moderating the impact of COVID-19-related stigma on quality of professional life in a sample of healthcare professionals working in hospital. METHODS: A cross-sectional design in which a web-based questionnaire was sent to professionals was used to collect answers from 174 participants, most of whom women and nurses. RESULTS: Perceived stigma was negatively related with compassion satisfaction and positively related with an increase in both burnout and secondary traumatic stress. Professional identification had a positive correlation with satisfaction and a negative correlation with burnout, but this was not directly related with secondary traumatic stress. Importantly, stigma and identification interacted so that stigma decreased compassion satisfaction only when identification was low, and increased secondary traumatic stress only when identification was high. No interaction effect appeared with respect to burnout. CONCLUSIONS: Experience of stigmatization has the potential to decrease the quality of professional life of healthcare professionals. Professional identification seems to help professional to maintain higher level of compassion satisfaction and reduced burnout. However, professional identification seems also be associated with vicarious trauma experienced following stigma. (www.actabiomedica.it).