“Unprecedented Times:” Experiences of Social Work and Public Health Professionals during Times of Public Crises

ABSTRACT

Social workers and public health professionals in the U.S. were profoundly impacted by COVID-19, systemic racism, and the 2020 U.S. presidential election. This study examined their external job support, burnout, and job satisfaction in the context of these circumstances. The findings suggest respondents, who had graduate degrees in social work or public health, overemphasized their job satisfaction and underemphasized their burnout. While social work and public health professionals felt satisfied with their labor, not acknowledging burnout limits the amount of support they may access to effectively continue the work. Interestingly, participants who had more administrative functions reported higher job satisfaction scores and lower burnout scores. Traditionally, those in administrative positions have more control over their schedule and work responsibilities. Findings suggest that more training, opportunities for self-care, and discussions about safety and systemic racism are needed in the workplace for social workers and public health professionals.

KEYWORDS:

• Coronavirus-19 pandemic
• public health
• racial justice
• social work
• workplace stress

Acknowledgments

We thank Dr Laurie Friedman, Amrit Baral, and Kena Patel for their involvement in the development of this research study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.