COVID-19 crisis overshadowing the health workforces’ rights and resilience: a systematic review

In the time of the COVID-19 crisis, many physical, psychological and spiritual difficulties are imposed on the front line staff and overshadow their rights, resilience and retention. In addition, the loss of this important organizational resource imposes huge costs on the system. The purpose of this study is systemic review of the influential factors, policies and strategies applied to defend the rights of health-care staff and improve the resilience and retention of health system human resources in the COVID-19 crisis.

This systematic review was conducted in 2021. Data were collected by keyword search in Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, Magiran, SID and Irandoc databases until December 2021. In addition, the quality of the studies was evaluated by three experts using the Strobe checklist. The analysis used in this study to categorize the results was thematic analysis.

Factors that cause tension and injustice to employees and also strategies to overcome it and increase their resilience were classified into general categories according to their nature. Factors included factors related to safety, economic and financial, staff characteristics, crisis management characteristics, organizational climate and working conditions. Existing strategies also fall into four categories of physical, psychological and spiritual health promotion strategies; organizational climate and work environment; education and empowerment and economic and financial.

This study is a systematic review of the factors that affect the health workforce rights and resilience of health-care personnel during the COVID-19 crisis. On the other hand, the policies and strategies used in different countries to overcome the difficulties and increase the resilience and retention of health workers have been summarized and can be used in other crises.