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Cited by 82COVID-19 and Mental HealthHealthcare professionals’ stress and burnoutOccupational Health and Burnout

Mental health and well‐being impacts of COVID‐19 on rural paramedics, police, community nurses and child protection workers

Open access
Roberts, Russell, Wong, Alfred, Jenkins, Stacey, Neher, Alain, Sutton, Clare, O’Meara, Peter, Frost, Mark, Bamberry, Larissa +1 more·2021·Australian Journal of Rural Health
DOI 10.1111/ajr.12804PMC PMC8653026
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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health and well-being of rural paramedics, police, community nursing and child protection staff. METHOD: An online survey was distributed to investigate the sources of stress and support across individual, task and organisational domains. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: The survey was completed by 1542 paramedics, police, community nurses and child protection workers from all states and territories of Australia. This study describes the data for the 632 rural participants. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The main measures of well-being were the Public Health Questionnaire (PHQ9), the Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD7), the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), workplace engagement, intention to quit and COVID-19-related stress. RESULTS: The mean depression and anxiety scores were 8.2 (PHQ9) and 6.8 (GAD7). This is 2-3 times that found in the general community. Over half (56.1%) of respondents showed high emotional exhaustion (burnout). The emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and personal accomplishment mean scores were 28.5, 9.3 and 34.2, respectively. The strongest associations with burnout and psychological distress were workload, provision of practical support, training and organisational communication. A significant proportion of respondents were seriously considering quitting (27.4%) or looking for a new job with a different employer (28.5%) in the next 12 months. CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 has increased the workload and stress on rural front-line community staff. The major sources of stress were related to organisations' responses to COVID-19 and not COVID-19 per se. The data suggest the most effective mental health interventions are practical and preventive, such as firstly ensuring fair and reasonable workloads.

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  • COVID-19 further increased rates of depression, anxiety, and burnout among Australian paramedics and other first responders.

    “R. Roberts et al. (2021), noted the impact of COVID-19 in further increasing the rates of depression, anxiety, and burnout among Australian paramedics and other first responders (R. Roberts et al., 2021).”

    From Understanding the Occupational Factors that Influence Paramedic Health and Wellbeing (2024) · cites this paper as R. Roberts et al., 2021

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Authors
Roberts, R., Wong, A., Jenkins, S., Neher, A., Sutton, C., O’Meara, P., Frost, M., Bamberry, L., & Dwivedi, A.
Affiliations
  • Charles Sturt University (AU)
  • Monash University Frankston Vic. Australia
Corresponding author
Roberts, Russell
ORCID
Venue
Australian Journal of Rural Health
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2021-09-29
Volume
29
Issue
5
Pages
753-767
ISSN
  • 1038-5282 (ISSN-L)
  • 1440-1584
DOI
10.1111/ajr.12804
PMC
PMC8653026
OpenAlex
W3198097595
Cited by
82
References
39
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 31 · 2021: 2
FWCI
11.42
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations
  • Australian Journal of Rural Health (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Health and Burnout
Keywords
COVID-19 pandemic, mental health, well-being, rural health workers, paramedics, police officers, community nurses, child protection professionals, burnout, emotional exhaustion, psychological distress, workload, turnover intention, organizational communication, organizational support
MeSH terms
COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Allied Health Personnel, Burnout, Professional, Child, Humans, Mental Health, Nurses, Surveys and Questionnaires, Police, Workload

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