Department of Health Services Research, Care and Public Health Research Institute (CAPHRI), Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, 6229 GT, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Department of Work and Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, 6229 ER, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Hum Resour Health. 2023 Jun 9;21(1):44. doi: 10.1186/s12960-023-00830-8.
Psychosocial support programs are a way for hospitals to support the mental health of their staff. However, while support is needed, utilization of support by hospital staff remains low. This study aims to identify reasons for non-use and elements that are important to consider when offering psychosocial support.
This mixed-method, multiple case study used survey data and in-depth interviews to assess the extent of psychosocial support use, reasons for non-use and perceived important elements regarding the offering of psychosocial support among Dutch hospital staff. The study focused on a time of especially high need, namely the COVID-19 pandemic. Descriptive statistics were used to assess frequency of use among 1514 staff. The constant comparative method was used to analyze answers provided to two open-ended survey questions (n = 274 respondents) and in-depth interviews (n = 37 interviewees).
The use of psychosocial support decreased from 8.4% in December 2020 to 3.6% by September 2021. We identified four main reasons for non-use of support: deeming support unnecessary, deeming support unsuitable, being unaware of the availability, or feeling undeserving of support. Furthermore, we uncovered four important elements: offer support structurally after the crisis, adjust support to diverse needs, ensure accessibility and awareness, and an active role for supervisors.
Our results show that the low use of psychosocial support by hospital staff is shaped by individual, organizational, and support-specific factors. These factors can be targeted to increase use of psychosocial support, whereby it is important to also focus on the wider hospital workforce in addition to frontline staff.
心理社会支持计划是医院支持员工心理健康的一种方式。然而，尽管需要支持，但医院员工对支持的利用仍然很低。本研究旨在确定不使用的原因以及提供心理社会支持时需要考虑的重要因素。
本混合方法、多案例研究使用调查数据和深入访谈评估了荷兰医院员工心理社会支持的使用程度、不使用的原因以及对提供心理社会支持的重要因素的看法。该研究侧重于一个特别需要的时期，即 COVID-19 大流行期间。描述性统计用于评估 1514 名员工的使用频率。采用恒定性比较方法分析了 274 名受访者对两个开放式调查问题的回答和 37 名受访者的深入访谈。
心理社会支持的使用从 2020 年 12 月的 8.4%下降到 2021 年 9 月的 3.6%。我们确定了不使用支持的四个主要原因：认为支持不必要、认为支持不合适、不知道支持的可用性，或觉得不值得支持。此外，我们还发现了四个重要因素：在危机后有组织地提供支持、调整支持以满足不同需求、确保可及性和意识，以及主管的积极作用。
我们的研究结果表明，医院员工对心理社会支持的低利用率受到个人、组织和支持特定因素的影响。可以针对这些因素来提高心理社会支持的利用率，重要的是，除了一线员工外，还要关注更广泛的医院劳动力。
