Professional quality of life and resilience strategies among Tunisian healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

During the COVID-19 pandemic, repeated exposure of health care workers to unpredictable challenges in practice can affect their professional quality of life. The objectives of this study were to assess professional quality of life among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and to investigate the relationships between professional quality of life and resilience. We conducted a cross-sectional, descriptive, and analytical study, carried out in October and November 2020, among 250 health professionals, practicing in Tunisia. Data were collected through an online questionnaire distributed on social networks. We used the “Professional Quality of Life Scale-5” to assess professional quality of life and the “Brief Resilience Scale” to assess resilience. Compassion satisfaction was low to moderate in 77.6% of participants. Most participants (90.4%) had moderate burnout. Compassion fatigue was low to moderate in 98% of cases. Healthcare professionals with higher resilience scores had significantly higher compassion satisfaction scores, and significantly lower burnout and compassion fatigue scores. In addition, higher burnout scores were associated with significantly lower compassion satisfaction scores and significantly higher compassion fatigue scores. These associations were found after multivariate analysis using multiple linear regression. Our results highlight the altered professional quality of life among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Immediate interventions are essential to improve psychological resilience and build health systems capacity. © 2022 Elsevier Masson SAS