Assessing the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare staff at a combined elderly care and specialist palliative care facility: A cross-sectional study

<jats:sec><jats:title>Background:</jats:title><jats:p> In the pre-COVID-19 era, healthcare professionals experienced stress and burnout. The international literature confirms that COVID-19 placed significant additional burdens on healthcare workers. </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Aim:</jats:title><jats:p> To describe and characterise the magnitude and variety of ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic affected the personal, social and professional lives of healthcare workers representing several multidisciplinary specialties in a fully-integrated palliative and elderly care service. </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Design:</jats:title><jats:p> All staff were invited to complete an anonymised standardised questionnaire evaluating the impact of COVID-19 across a diverse range of domains. The study was conducted over a 6-week period commencing 11 September 2020. </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Setting:</jats:title><jats:p> The setting incorporates two distinct but integrated services operating under a single management structure in Ireland: (i) Specialist palliative care across hospice (44 beds), community and hospitals and (ii) Elderly Care Service (long-term and respite care) delivered in a 63-bed inpatient unit. </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results:</jats:title><jats:p> 250 respondents (69.8%) completed the questionnaire. Nurses and healthcare assistants comprised the majority of respondents (60%) and other disciplines were represented proportionately. 230 participants (92%) agreed that their personal workload had changed significantly in response to COVID-19 and 182 (72.8%) agreed that their responsibilities had increased. 196 (78.4%) reported greater work-related stress. Highest-rated sources of stress included fear of contracting COVID-19 or transmitting it to friends/family, interacting with isolated frail/dying patients, changes to workplace protocols and reduced social interaction with colleagues. </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions:</jats:title><jats:p> This study demonstrates the profound impact of COVID-19 on personal and professional wellbeing of staff. The greatest burden was carried by those providing prolonged, direct and intimate patient care. </jats:p></jats:sec>