Pandemic-Related Ability and Willingness in Home Healthcare Workers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Canton AN ; Gershon RR ; Magda LA ; Riley HE ; Sherman MF ; Wiggins F ; Young W
• Description:
  OBJECTIVE: To assess pandemic-related attitudes and behavioral intentions of home healthcare workers (HHCWs). DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: New York City. PARTICIPANTS: A convenience sample of 384 HHCWs. MAIN OUTCOME VARIABLES: Ability and willingness to report to work during a pandemic influenza outbreak. RESULTS: A large proportion of HHCWs reported that they would be either unable or unwilling (or both) to provide care to their current (83 percent) or new (91 percent) patients during a pandemic. Ability was significantly associated with not having children living at home, having alternatives to mass transportation, not having a spouse/partner employed as a first responder or healthcare worker, and having longer tenure (ie, six or more years) in homecare. During an outbreak, 43 percent of HHCWs said they would be willing to take care of current patients and only 27 percent were willing to take care of new patients. Willingness to care for both current and new patients was inversely associated with fear for personal safety (p < 0.01). Provision of key elements of a respiratory protection program was associated with decreased fear (p < 0.05). Most participants (86 percent) had not received any work-based, pandemic-related training, and only 5 percent reported that their employer had an influenza pandemic plan. CONCLUSIONS: Given that a large majority of the participating HHCWs would either be unable or unwilling to report to duty during a pandemic, potential shortfalls in this workforce may occur. To counter this, organizations should focus on strategies targeting intervenable barriers to ability and to willingness (ie, the provision of a vaccine and respiratory protection programs). [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Delivery Of Health Care Environmental Monitoring Hazardous Substances Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Health Personnel Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Safety Management Surveys And Questionnaires Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Ability Analytical-processes Author Keywords: Home Healthcare Workers Exposure-assessment Exposure-methods Health-care Health-care-personnel Health-hazards Health-services Health-surveys Influenza Pandemic Medical-care Medical-personnel Medical-services Nursing Occupational-exposure Occupational-hazards Occupational-health Occupational-health-services Risk-analysis Risk-factors Safety-measures Statistical-analysis Surge Capacity Willingness Work-environment Work-performance Worker-health

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• ISSN:
  1932-149X
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  New York ; OSHA Region 2
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  15-26
• Volume:
  5
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20036655
• Citation:
  Am J Disaster Med 2010 Jan-Feb; 5(1):15-26
• Contact Point Address:
  Robyn R. M. Gershon, MT, MHS, DrPH, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 722 West 168th Street, Suite 1003, New York, NY 10032
• Email:
  rg405@columbia.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2010
• Performing Organization:
  Columbia University, Health Sciences
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20040901
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Disaster Medicine
• End Date:
  20080630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:c07d4c534a29b5f013140c1d58f351bbb849755867dd2ddff86a3d8ffff4b1a6203a1a07385abf63dc99da559839cf29bb9e8b07573d5d55be021950e7350cba
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/187989/cdc_187989_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 93.04 KB ]