COPE-Staff - Evaluating the physical and psychosocial work environment for staff working with or near pregnant women, women giving birth, and newborns during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic means extreme pressure on staff in pregnancy, childbirth and neonatal care. Pregnant and women giving birth are a group of patients who cannot refrain from care and who are also particularly vulnerable to infection and anxiety. We need to know how caregivers and other caregivers working with pregnant women, mothers and their newborns were able to handle the situation that arose in the spring of 2020, partly to secure future supply of staff in an industry that is already struggling with redundancies and dropouts, partly for to be able to benefit from the care experiences created during the pandemic, but which the clinics and hospitals themselves do not have time to systematically clarify. In this study, the work environment for those working with pregnant and giving birth and with their newborn children during the pandemic is mapped. The purpose is 1) to clarify the psychosocial work environment of the staff and 2) to create knowledge that can be used during COVID-19 and in future pandemics by taking advantage of the lessons and experiences formed in the organizations. The project is unique in that the motto is to examine the entire workforce, including those who make the operational decisions. The research group consists of specialists from several different research areas, which provides a breadth of the knowledge that is formed. All maternity clinics, gynecology clinics and connected neonatal units as well as the infection clinics that care for pregnant and newly delivered women in Sweden have been invited to participate in the study. The project is unique in that the motto is to examine the entire workforce, including those who make the operational decisions. The research group consists of specialists from several different research areas, which provides a breadth of the knowledge that is formed. All maternity clinics, gynecology clinics and connected neonatal units as well as the infection clinics that care for pregnant and newly delivered women in Sweden have been invited to participate in the study. The project is unique in that the motto is to examine the entire workforce, including those who make the operational decisions. The research group consists of specialists from several different research areas, which provides a breadth of the knowledge that is formed. All maternity clinics, gynecology clinics and connected neonatal units as well as the infection clinics that care for pregnant and newly delivered women in Sweden have been invited to participate in the study.