Interesting Findings
Hello everyone!
For my second-to-last blog post, I’d love to talk about some of the most interesting and significant findings thus far in my data analysis. Overall, it seems that COVID-19 and its spread have become less of a major source of concern and anxiety for the providers at MHC Healthcare. This is an enormous step forward, and bodes very well for the future as MHC works to support their providers through a transition back to normal life.
Additionally, many providers noted that their coworkers and the community of providers at MHC Healthcare were a positive influence on their mood and helped to offset some of the feelings of burnout and unhealthy cycles that other studies have found among the community health workforce. Although those things were certainly present, many providers stated that having people around to talk to who could understand their struggles was a large part of how they coped with feelings of isolation during the pandemic. This supports the suggestion that many other studies have posited of giving healthcare workers spaces to share their experiences as a way of promoting healthy coping and trying to mitigate the effects of burnout and emotional labor. The one interviewee who noted that they did not feel socially connected to their coworkers also reported that they felt a more interconnected work environment would help to mitigate some of their burnout. This likely explains a strange trend that I found while analyzing my survey data: emotional consonance was actually negatively correlated with most of my other variables, indicating that it was not a good indicator of burnout. Emotional consonance refers to being impacted by the emotions of those around you, so MHC providers likely react to the positivity of their coworkers, creating a healthier environment for those who are more connected to the emotional of others.
In terms of emotional labor, it was clear that surface acting was a major source of burnout for MHC’s providers. The heavy politicization of COVID-19 as well as the abundance of misinformation made it difficult for them to express their true feelings on the topic to patients, and even sometimes their own friends, leading to them engaging in surface acting, or faking the “expected” emotions of someone in their position. Many providers noted that they lost friends and relationships during the pandemic, as they witnessed firsthand the kind of damage that COVID had done to their patients, so having others tell them that their concerns were unfounded was difficult on them mentally.
Most providers were also happy with the support available from MHC, however, some notes included desiring more paid sick leave, especially because, as healthcare providers, they were much more exposed to viruses and pathogens compared to most workers. Additionally, many providers expressed gratitude for the mental health services available to MHC providers, but one interviewee mentioned that it was difficult to access such services quickly, meaning that someone in an emergency situation would have trouble accessing the necessary care.
Those were my major findings from my interviews, but I’m excited to start connecting those more to my survey data, and sharing this information with the world.
– Priya <3