Caregiving During COVID and Beyond: The Experience of Workplace Stress and Chaplain Care Among Healthcare Workers

Abstract

Healthcare workers (HCWs) experience occupational stressors that negatively impact emotional well-being and exacerbate turnover intentions. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the resultant acute care turnover rates have reached an all-time high. In addition, occupational stressors lead to psychological stress, including moral distress, defined as the dissonance between perceiving what the right course of action is and encountering an obstacle to acting accordingly. This qualitative descriptive study explored the perceptions of patient-facing HCWs in acute care hospital settings regarding the workplace stressors they encountered and the role of hospital-based chaplains in addressing emotional well-being and stress with 33 interviews. Findings suggest that HCW frequently experience work-related moral distress and seek relief by interacting with hospital chaplains. Chaplain care, common in American healthcare facilities for the spiritual care of patients, is an easily accessible resource to HCWs. Facilitating chaplain–HCW interactions may be an effective strategy for responding to moral distress and improving healthcare workers’ well-being.