Wellbeing of Palliative Care Workers During Covid-19 Pandemic: Implications for Social Work Practice

Abstract

The present study is aimed at examining the wellbeing of palliative care workers in India (n = 114) with special reference to work related variables. The World Health Organization’s five item wellbeing index was used to measure the wellbeing of the respondents. In general, the wellbeing of the respondents was found to be good. Furthermore, the age of the respondent (p < 0.001), gender (p < 0.05), work setting (hospital vs. non-hospital) (p < 0.05), work environment (p < 0.01), recent unemployment (job loss) (p < 0.01), years of experience in palliative care (p < 0.05), number of hours of work per week (p < 0.05), and the number of clients who died in the previous month (p < 0.01), were all found to be associated with the wellbeing of the respondents. Specifically, young and female respondents, those engaged in hospital based palliative care, having a poor work environment, facing recent unemployment, having less experience, working for more number of hours, and having more number of patients dying in the previous month, all had a lower level of wellbeing. The implications for social work practice have also been discussed in detail.

Keywords:

• Palliative care
• social work
• wellbeing
• work environment

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

The authors report that the present study has not been funded by any organization.