You stay home, but we can't: Invisible 'dirty' work as calling amid COVID-19 pandemic

Moderating role of family functioning and resource support in the relationship between career calling and academic burnout among Chinese medical students during the controlled COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study

PURPOSE

This cross-sectional study aims to assess the level of academic burnout among Chinese medical students during the controlled COVID-19 pandemic and identify the potential demographic factors affecting academic burnout. It also explored the relationship between career calling, family functioning, resource support, and academic burnout, as well as investigated whether family functioning and resource support could moderate the relationship between career calling and academic burnout among Chinese medical students.

METHODS

The study was conducted in five Chinese cities in 2021. A total of 3614 valid questionnaires were collected to assess the relationship between academic burnout, career calling, family functioning, and resource support, and determine whether demographic factors contribute to academic burnout. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to explore factors correlated with academic burnout and test the moderating effect of family functioning and resource support on the relationship between career calling and academic burnout.

RESULTS

The mean academic burnout score was 3.29 ± 1.17. Sex, major, academic performance ranking, monthly living expenses, physical health, and sleep quality significantly affected academic burnout (p < 0.05). Academic burnout was negatively correlated with career calling, resource support, and family functioning. Family functioning and resource support moderated the relationship between career calling and academic burnout. Simple slope analysis revealed that high family functioning and resource support strengthened the impact of career calling on academic burnout.

CONCLUSIONS

Most medical students in China experienced relatively high levels of academic burnout during the controlled COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, specific demographic factors contribute to academic burnout. Family functioning and resource support moderate the relationship between career calling and academic burnout. These findings emphasize the importance of implementing career-calling education, supplementing family functioning in the form of school support, and providing sufficient smart learning resources among medical students in the post-pandemic era.

[Nonclinical support workers of a reference hospital in Bahia, Brazil, as being essential and invisible in the face of COVID-19]

In the context of hospital work during the COVID-19 pandemic, it should be acknowledged that the nonclinical support activities carried out by stretcher bearers, cleaning agents and administrative assistants were essential for the work process. This article analyzed the results of an exploratory stage of broader research with these workers in a COVID-19 hospital reference unit in the state of Bahia. Three semi-structured interviews were selected, using assumptions of ethnomethodology and ergonomics, to encourage these workers to talk about their work, The analysis concentrated on the work activities of stretcher-bearers, cleaning agents and administrative assistants from a visibility perspective. The study showed that these workers were rendered invisible by the scant social respect for their activities and level of schooling that prevailed despite the circumstances and excess workload; and revealed the essential nature of these services due to the interdependence between support work and care work and their contributions to patient and team safety. The conclusion drawn is that it is necessary to establish strategies such that these workers are valued socially, financially, and institutionally.