About this Research Topic
This Research Topic invites researchers, scholars, and healthcare professionals to contribute to this article collection dedicated to understanding and amplifying the lived experiences of healthcare professionals in the workplace.
Perhaps more than any time in recent history, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the immense pressures and challenges faced by healthcare workers in their everyday working lives. Most existing research on the experiences of healthcare workers focuses on the experiences of frontline workers during the height of the pandemic (Grailey et al., 2021; McGlinchey et al., 2021; Kayiga et al., 2021). Even prior to the pandemic, challenging working conditions, ethical dilemmas, and high-stress environments were (and continue to be) common in the everyday working lives of healthcare professionals. Healthcare workers face a variety of challenges and stressors in the workplace, including long work hours, understaffing, patient violence, and lack of support. Furthermore, discrimination against healthcare staff, from both patients and colleagues, is prevalent in healthcare systems worldwide, resulting in detrimental effects on health and quality of patient care (Yolci et al., 2022; NHS England, 2021).
This multidisciplinary Research Topic encourages submissions from across the social sciences and from across different communities, contexts, and professions. Submissions are encouraged from a range of methodological approaches, including (but not limited to) interviews, participant observation, autoethnography, focus groups, and mixed-methods studies. Authors are encouraged to facilitate authentic collaborations with healthcare workers to ensure their voices are accurately represented. By amplifying their voices and experiences, this Research Topic seeks to facilitate a broader dialogue and generate insights that can inform policies, practices, and societal perceptions related to healthcare work.
Topics of interest for this Research Topic may include (but are not limited to):
- COVID-19: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers’ work experiences and mental health
- Intersectional experiences: Exploring how intersecting identities, such as race, gender, and socio-economic background, shape the lived experiences of healthcare workers and influence their interactions with patients, colleagues, and the healthcare system
- Discrimination and marginalization: Intersectional identities and healthcare workers’ experiences of discrimination and marginalization in the workplace
- Emotional labor and burnout: Investigating the emotional labor involved in healthcare work and its emotional, psychological, and physical impact on healthcare workers
- Professional identity and role perception: Examining how healthcare workers perceive their professional identities, navigating the complexities of their roles, and the impact on their well-being
- Organizational policies and practices: Examining the role of organizational policies, structures, and practices in perpetuating or mitigating stress, discrimination, and racism within healthcare settings
- Power dynamics and hierarchies: Analyzing the social structures, hierarchies, and power dynamics within healthcare systems, and their effects on healthcare workers' experiences
- Coping mechanisms and support systems: Investigating the coping mechanisms utilized by healthcare workers to navigate challenges, examining the effectiveness of support systems, including peer support programs, counseling, and organizational interventions
- Well-being: Best practices for supporting healthcare workers’ well-being and retention.
This Research Topic accepts a variety of article types, full details of which can be found on the Frontiers in Sociology website.
References
Grailey, K., Lound, A., and Brett, S. (2021). Lived experiences of healthcare workers on the front line during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative interview study. BMJ Open 11(12), e053680. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053680
Kayiga, H., Genevive, D. A., Amuge, P. M., Ssemata, A. S., Nanzira, R. S., & Nakimuli, A. (2021). Lived experiences of frontline healthcare providers offering maternal and newborn services amidst the novel corona virus disease 19 pandemic in Uganda: A qualitative study. PLoS One, 16(12), e0259835. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259835
McGlinchey, E., Hitch, C., Butter, S., McCaughey, L., Berry, E., and Armour, C. (2021). Understanding the lived experiences of healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic: an interpretative phenomenological analysis. European Journal of Psychotraumatology 12(1), 1904700. doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2021.1904700
NHS England (2022) NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard: 2021 data analysis report for NHS trusts. Available at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Workforce-Race-Equality-Standard-report-2021-.pdf (Accessed: 23 August 2023).
Yolci, A., Schenk, L., Sonntag, P. T., Peppler, L., Schouler-Ocak, M., and Schneider, A. (2022). Observed and personally experienced discrimination: findings of a cross-sectional survey of physicians and nursing staff. Human Resources for Health 20(1), 83. doi.org/10.1186/s12960-022-00779-0
Perhaps more than any time in recent history, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the immense pressures and challenges faced by healthcare workers in their everyday working lives. Most existing research on the experiences of healthcare workers focuses on the experiences of frontline workers during the height of the pandemic (Grailey et al., 2021; McGlinchey et al., 2021; Kayiga et al., 2021). Even prior to the pandemic, challenging working conditions, ethical dilemmas, and high-stress environments were (and continue to be) common in the everyday working lives of healthcare professionals. Healthcare workers face a variety of challenges and stressors in the workplace, including long work hours, understaffing, patient violence, and lack of support. Furthermore, discrimination against healthcare staff, from both patients and colleagues, is prevalent in healthcare systems worldwide, resulting in detrimental effects on health and quality of patient care (Yolci et al., 2022; NHS England, 2021).
This multidisciplinary Research Topic encourages submissions from across the social sciences and from across different communities, contexts, and professions. Submissions are encouraged from a range of methodological approaches, including (but not limited to) interviews, participant observation, autoethnography, focus groups, and mixed-methods studies. Authors are encouraged to facilitate authentic collaborations with healthcare workers to ensure their voices are accurately represented. By amplifying their voices and experiences, this Research Topic seeks to facilitate a broader dialogue and generate insights that can inform policies, practices, and societal perceptions related to healthcare work.
Topics of interest for this Research Topic may include (but are not limited to):
- COVID-19: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers’ work experiences and mental health
- Intersectional experiences: Exploring how intersecting identities, such as race, gender, and socio-economic background, shape the lived experiences of healthcare workers and influence their interactions with patients, colleagues, and the healthcare system
- Discrimination and marginalization: Intersectional identities and healthcare workers’ experiences of discrimination and marginalization in the workplace
- Emotional labor and burnout: Investigating the emotional labor involved in healthcare work and its emotional, psychological, and physical impact on healthcare workers
- Professional identity and role perception: Examining how healthcare workers perceive their professional identities, navigating the complexities of their roles, and the impact on their well-being
- Organizational policies and practices: Examining the role of organizational policies, structures, and practices in perpetuating or mitigating stress, discrimination, and racism within healthcare settings
- Power dynamics and hierarchies: Analyzing the social structures, hierarchies, and power dynamics within healthcare systems, and their effects on healthcare workers' experiences
- Coping mechanisms and support systems: Investigating the coping mechanisms utilized by healthcare workers to navigate challenges, examining the effectiveness of support systems, including peer support programs, counseling, and organizational interventions
- Well-being: Best practices for supporting healthcare workers’ well-being and retention.
This Research Topic accepts a variety of article types, full details of which can be found on the Frontiers in Sociology website.
References
Grailey, K., Lound, A., and Brett, S. (2021). Lived experiences of healthcare workers on the front line during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative interview study. BMJ Open 11(12), e053680. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053680
Kayiga, H., Genevive, D. A., Amuge, P. M., Ssemata, A. S., Nanzira, R. S., & Nakimuli, A. (2021). Lived experiences of frontline healthcare providers offering maternal and newborn services amidst the novel corona virus disease 19 pandemic in Uganda: A qualitative study. PLoS One, 16(12), e0259835. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259835
McGlinchey, E., Hitch, C., Butter, S., McCaughey, L., Berry, E., and Armour, C. (2021). Understanding the lived experiences of healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic: an interpretative phenomenological analysis. European Journal of Psychotraumatology 12(1), 1904700. doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2021.1904700
NHS England (2022) NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard: 2021 data analysis report for NHS trusts. Available at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Workforce-Race-Equality-Standard-report-2021-.pdf (Accessed: 23 August 2023).
Yolci, A., Schenk, L., Sonntag, P. T., Peppler, L., Schouler-Ocak, M., and Schneider, A. (2022). Observed and personally experienced discrimination: findings of a cross-sectional survey of physicians and nursing staff. Human Resources for Health 20(1), 83. doi.org/10.1186/s12960-022-00779-0
Keywords: healthcare, workplace, lived experiences, emotion, mental health, stress, COVID-19, discrimination, well-being
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
