Assessment of frontline healthcare workers Quality of Work Life (QoWL) during the Covid-19 pandemic - a comparative study between China and UK

Introduction: The COVID-19 epidemic left high proportion of healthcare workers (HCWs) faced with considerable levels of anxiety, depression, and insomnia. Previous studies have shown excessive workload and inadequate working conditions are two main issues among HCWs. Assessing QoWL has been considered as an important way of understanding how HCWs evaluate their work environment. Material and Methods: A cross section survey among frontline HCWs from China and UK (n = 345) was undertaken based on seven dimensional QoWL factors : General Well-Being (GWB); Home-Work Interface (HWI); Job & Career Satisfaction (JCS); Control at Work (CAW), Working Conditions (WCS); Stress at Work (SAW); employee engagement (EEN). Cronbach α was used to measure the internal consistency within each domain and to test the exploratory factor structure confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was applied. Descriptive analysis and One-way ANOVA was performed to examine the association between demographic and job characteristics with QoWL. Ethics clearance was granted by faculty ethics committee. Results: Acceptable Cronbach α score, and CFA were achieved. Overall, 72.8% of the HCWs confirmed working under pressure during the pandemic and 54.2% felt excessive level of stress associated with workload. Significant differences were found between gender and three dimensions, i.e. EEN (F = 6.51, p = 0.011), GWB (F = 3.91, p =0.049), HWI (F = 5.22, p = 0.023). Conclusions: The study conclude organisations and related stakeholders should invest in workplace programmes aimed at alleviating stress at work and excessive workload issue among frontline HCWs