Survey: Will workers show up in pandemic?
Home life, antivirals are key issues
If you want your employees to report to work during a pandemic, make sure you have plenty of antiviral medications. Let them know how you'll help them manage the unique work-life balance issues of an emergency, such as child care when schools are closed. And underscore how important they are to the organization, even if their duties are clerical or custodial.
Those are the preliminary results of a study of workers' likelihood to work during a pandemic by Linda Good, PhD, RN, COHN-S, manager of employee occupational health services at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla. She developed a new instrument, the Pandemic Response to Emergency Pandemic (PREP) Tool and conducted a validation pilot study with 452 employees. She is expanding her survey to test the reliability of her instrument and to gain insight into the fears and concerns health care workers have when it comes to reporting to work in a pandemic.
Practicality entered into the item most highly predictive of return-to-work intentions during a pandemic: "I believe I'll be able to make the necessary adjustments [at home]." Employees would need assistance with child care, elder care, or other similar responsibilities, the survey suggests.
Employees were likewise more certain about their intention to work during a pandemic if they agreed with this statement: "I'll be able to work despite having people I know personally die as a result of this disaster."
The availability of antiviral medication was very important to employees, and so was the sense that their job is essential to the functioning of the hospital, says Good. "[A hospital] is like a little city, and you need all of the infrastructure in place," she says. Yet a food service worker or admitting clerk might think, "'Oh, you need nurses, but I better stay home,' which is not actually the case," she says. Recognizing this gives hospitals an opportunity to teach employees about the value they would provide to the organization during a pandemic, preventing staffing gaps, says Good.
Surprisingly, work-related demographics were not most predictive of report-to-work. "Shift, salary status, years in the profession, and years at the facility didn't make a difference," she says.
Once the PREP Tool is finalized, it could be an instrument to help hospitals determine their likely staffing issues as part of pandemic preparedness, she says. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has Flu Surge software to help employers determine the resources they'll need in a pandemic, "and this tool adds the important component of the needed human resources and report-to-work intentions of employees," she says.
If you want your employees to report to work during a pandemic, make sure you have plenty of antiviral medications. Let them know how you'll help them manage the unique work-life balance issues of an emergency, such as child care when schools are closed. And underscore how important they are to the organization, even if their duties are clerical or custodial.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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