Narratives from African American/Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Hispanic/Latinx community members in Arizona to enhance COVID-19 vaccine and vaccination uptake.

The state of Arizona has experienced one of the highest novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) positivity test rates in the United States with disproportionally higher case rates and deaths among African-American/Black (AA/B), American Indian/Alaska Native (Native), and Hispanic/Latinx (HLX) individuals. To reduce disparities and promote health equity, researchers from Arizona State University, Mayo Clinic in Arizona, Northern Arizona University, and the University of Arizona formed a partnership with community organizations to conduct state-wide community-engaged research and outreach. This report describes results from 34 virtually-held focus groups and supplemental survey responses conducted with 153 AA/B, HLX, and Native community members across Arizona to understand factors associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and confidence. Focus groups revealed common themes of vaccine hesitancy stemming from past experiences of research abuses (e.g., Tuskegee syphilis experiment) as well as group-specific factors. Across all focus groups, participants strongly recommended the use of brief, narrative vaccination testimonials from local officials, community members, and faith leaders to increase trust in science, vaccine confidence and to promote uptake.

A cross-sectional analysis of factors associated with stress, burnout and turnover intention among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

In 2020, healthcare workers faced the COVID-19 pandemic amidst other salient sociopolitical stressors. This study, therefore, set out to examine associations between personal, work-related and contextual factors and three outcomes - stress, burnout and turnover intention - at a critical juncture in the pandemic. In December 2020, we recruited a broad array of healthcare workers (n = 985) in a public safety net healthcare system serving socially and economically marginalised communities in the Southwest region of the United States using a cross-sectional online survey. The results indicated that more health problems were associated with higher stress and burnout symptoms. While seeking emotional support and using drugs or alcohol to cope were associated with higher stress, a positive social outlook was associated with lower stress. Lower quality of work-life was associated with higher burnout symptoms and turnover intention. Negative effects of the pandemic on wellbeing and higher number of COVID-19-related concerns were associated with higher stress and burnout symptoms. Contrary to the original hypotheses, self-care was not associated with any of the three outcomes, and effects of the political climate and issues of racism on wellbeing were not associated with stress, burnout or turnover intention. However, identifying as a Person of Colour was associated with higher stress, as well as lower burnout. The findings on worker health, social outlook, quality of work-life and race/ethnicity, in particular, suggest a critical need for healthcare systems to address the wellbeing of workers through equitable organisational policy and practice.