Social Stigma during COVID-19 and its Impact on HCWs Outcomes

The COVID-19 emergency has significantly transformed the working environment and job
demands. Providing care was emotionally dicult for healthcare workers. Uncertainty, stigmatisation,
and potentially exposing their families to infection were prominent themes for healthcare workers
(HCWs) during the crisis, which first broke out in China at the end of 2019, and then in Italy
in early 2020. This study examined the eects of stigma, job demands, and self-esteem, and the
consequences of working as a “frontline care provider” with patients infected with the coronavirus
(COVID-19). A correlational design study involved 260 healthcare workers (HCWs) working in
a large hospital in southern Italy. The following questionnaires were administered: (1) the Job
Content Questionnaire (JCQ), for assessing psychological and physical demands; (2) the Professional
Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL) to measure the quality individuals feel in relation to their work
as “frontline care providers”, through three dimensions: compassion fatigue (CF), burnout (BO),
and compassion satisfaction (CS); (3) the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, for evaluating individual
self-esteem; (4) a self-administered multiple-choice questionnaire developed by See et al. about
attitudes of discrimination, acceptance, and fear towards HCWs exposed to COVID-19. The findings
suggest that stigma has a high impact on workers’ outcomes. Stigma may influence worker compliance
and can guide management communication strategies relating to pandemic risk for HCWs.