The following is a summary of “Quality of work life for health professions in Colombia’s adult critical care: An integrative analysis,” published in the May 2024 issue of Critical Care by Quiñones-Rozo et al.

Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) work under challenging conditions globally and may migrate for better opportunities, impacting healthcare distribution and patient care quality.

Researchers conducted a retrospective study examining the well-being and experiences of healthcare workers in adult critical care (ACC) units.

They used a convergent parallel mixed methods design, integrating quantitative and qualitative data through a matrix to explore convergence, divergence, and complementarity in the findings. The quantitative arm employed a cross-sectional survey with 3 instruments administered to 209 participants to identify relationships between quality of work life, exposure to psychosocial risks, compassion fatigue, and intention to leave their current position. The narratives from 10 HCPs also explored organizational practices in critical care settings.

The result showed a significant dissatisfaction (77%) with managing free time as the biggest challenge to work-life balance for HCPs in ACC, while the most prominent psychosocial risk factor was a fast-paced work environment (84%). Despite facing challenges, participants reported high compassion satisfaction (67%) with a concerning finding of high intention to migrate (66%), potentially due to factors beyond the scope of the study. Qualitative data revealed experiences of discrimination and harassment being normalized within the workplace, alongside a sense of spiritual disconnection. The mixed methods approach provided convergent evidence regarding work-life balance and psychosocial risks, while qualitative data offered additional insights into workplace culture and potential reasons for staff turnover.

Investigators concluded that the positive trend embraces workplace safety, employee well-being, technological advancements, care protocols, fair compensation, adequate staffing, supplies, and achieving work-life balance.

Source: link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12913-024-10780-z