Addressing the Harms of COVID-19 on the Health of the Canadian Health Workforce: Evaluation of an Evidence-Informed, Multi-Level Intervention Strategy

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on the mental heath of health workers with significantly rising levels of distress and burnout at work. The combined impacts of the growing health care needs of the population - both those suffering from COVID-19 and those experiencing delays in care as a result of increased burden on the healthcare system during the pandemic, combined with the growing exodus of health workers from the health care system has created a critical and unsustainable situation requiring immediate intervention. Based on the timely research our team has conducted on the causes of health worker burnout during the pandemic, we have created a toolkit of evidence-based strategies to address rising rates and improve overall mental health. For this project, we intend to evaluate the different elements of this toolkit that will be implemented at the individual, organizational, and system/policy levels to enable further refinement and improvements. Ultimately, we hope a wide range of health care settings and organizations will adopt this toolkit to improve health workers' mental health, which has declined significantly during the pandemic.