Perception of readiness to manage COVID-19 among hospital workers: An individual, collective, and institutional process

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had adverse effects worldwide and has overwhelmed the health systems of many countries. Yet, to manage sanitary crises as COVID-19 pandemic, skills, commitment, and motivation of hospital workers are essential. However, most research on the preparedness of hospital workers for sanitary crises shows a mismatch between their level of preparedness, their perceived preparedness, and the estimated needs to manage these situations. After a definition of the concepts mobilized in this study, actual preparedness, declared preparedness, perceived preparedness, and perceived readiness, this study aims to explore hospital workers readiness perception to manage a sanitary crisis upcoming (COVID-19 pandemic) and determinants of this perception. Four hundred and eight French hospital workers respond to an online survey containing 11 items about COVID-19. Variables studied concern perception of personal preparedness, colleagues’ preparedness, and institutional preparedness. Results show that hospital workers have a relatively low readiness perception to manage COVID-19 before it came out. This study proposed a model explaining personal readiness perception to manage COVID-19, and the most important variables are as follows: colleague from the same hospital department (β = .37***), personal preparedness perception (β = .29***), perception of hospital human resources sufficient (β = .22**), perceived capacity for professional action (β = .097***), and perception of personal skills as sufficient (β = .11**). These results show that hospital workers did not feel ready, either individually or collectively, to manage the COVID-19 pandemic before it destabilized their hospital. The preparedness process is not an individual process, and it is necessary to emphasize its collective and institutional side. The results also show that preparedness would benefit from concentrating on exercises such as lessons learned (feedback sessions about the management of anterior sanitary crisis) and simulation exercises ***p < 0.001, ** p < 0.01.