Fear of COVID-19, emotional exhaustion, and care quality experience in nursing home staff during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background: Nursing home staff have been adversely impacted throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, facing difficulties in providing patient care. The aim of this study was to explore health workers' perception regarding their own care quality experience in nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst the second wave of the pandemic, we investigated the relationships between fear of COVID-19 and care quality experiences in nursing homes with emotional exhaustion (EE) as a mediating role. We hypothesized that EE is associated with fear of COVID-19 and care quality experience among nursing home staff. Furthermore, we predicted that EE would mediate the relationships between fear of COVID-19 and care quality experience. Methods: During the second wave of COVID-19 (October to December 2020), we administered surveys to a large sample of 129 French nursing home staff with a mean age of 38.47 +/- 10.31 who were directly and repeatedly exposed to COVID-19. We assessed their emotional exhaustion (EE) and care quality experience in the workplace via subjective indicators using self-reported scales. Results: In the context of COVID-19, low to severe emotional exhaustion levels were found among nursing home staff, and these levels were associated with care quality experience as well as fear of COVID-19. The groups with low and severe levels of EE reported the highest levels of fear of COVID-19. The groups with moderate and severe levels of EE reported the lowest levels of care quality experience. Lastly, the relationships between fear of COVID19 and care quality experience were mediated by EE. Conclusions: The findings made by the present study focused on the role of emotional coping responses to COVID19. EE was associated positively with fear of COVID-19 and negatively with care quality experience. Furthermore, EE was found to mediate the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and care quality experience. We discuss these findings as they relate to palliative care issues in nursing homes and the manner in which emotional exhaustion ought to be addressed among nursing home staff.

Automated summary

This study explored the relationship between care quality experience, fear of COVID-19, and emotional exhaustion among nursing home staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings showed that emotional exhaustion was positively associated with fear of COVID-19 and negatively associated with care quality experience. Emotional exhaustion was found to mediate the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and care quality experience.