Examining the Associations between Personal Protective Equipment, Training, Policy, and Acute Care Workers’ Psychological Distress during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Previous studies have demonstrated an association between low personal protective equipment (PPE) availability and high stress and anxiety among frontline healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is unclear how other factors, such as infection prevention and control (IPC) training and IPC policy support, correlate with workers’ distress. The current study explores these relationships. We conducted a secondary analysis of a public survey dataset from Statistics Canada. Acute care workers’ survey responses (n = 7379) were analyzed using structural equation modeling to examine relationships between features of the IPC work environment and acute care workers’ ratings of their stress and mental health. We found that PPE availability (β = −0.16), workplace supports (i.e., training, IPC policy compliance, and enforcement) (β = −0.16), and support for staying home when sick (β = −0.19) were all negatively correlated with distress. Together, these features explained 18.4% of the overall variability in workers’ distress. Among surveyed acute care workers, PPE availability was related to their distress; however, having workplace support and an emphasis on staying home when sick was also relevant. Overall, the results highlight that, in addition to PPE availability, workplace supports and emphasis on staying home are important. IPC professionals and healthcare leaders should consider these multiple features as they support acute care workers during future infectious disease outbreaks.