Assessing psychological distress of healthcare workers with and without work injuries: The role of job control

Abstract

Introduction: The study investigates the relationship between work-related injuries, psychological distress, and the influence of perceived job control on healthcare workers, using Bakker and Demerouti’s (2007) job demands-resources model as theoretical grounding. Method: We analyzed data from 610 healthcare workers (81.1% female) at a northern UK hospital, incorporating both self-reported and organizationally recorded work injury incidents over the three years preceding the survey, along with measures of psychological distress and perceived job control. Results: Unexpectedly, we found that the occurrence of work-related injuries, irrespective of the method of reporting, is not related to lower psychological distress among those employees who report a high level of job control. This relationship holds even when adjusting for various demographic and occupational variables. Conclusions and Practical Applications: Given the prevalence of work injuries in the healthcare sector, our findings suggest a need for a deeper exploration into how job characteristics might interact to offset the consequences of work injuries, challenging existing assumptions and opening new avenues for research into the psychology of workplace safety.