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Health workforce management in the context of the COVID‐19 pandemic: A survey of physicians in Serbia
Author(s) -
Dinić Milan,
Šantrić Milićević Milena,
MandićRajčević Stefan,
Tripković Katica
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the international journal of health planning and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1099-1751
pISSN - 0749-6753
DOI - 10.1002/hpm.3141
Subject(s) - workforce , preparedness , pandemic , context (archaeology) , public health , covid-19 , medicine , personal protective equipment , logistic regression , workforce management , nursing , political science , geography , disease , archaeology , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , law
Background & Aim The study describes the experiences and opinions of Serbian physicians regarding workforce management during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Materials & Methods A total of 1553 licensed physicians (65% males; average age 44.0 years) responded to an online survey in September 2020. Differences in the respondents' general data and attitudes regarding workforce management and outbreak preparedness in Serbia were analysed in relation to their engagement during the COVID‐19 pandemic (Pearson χ2 and the independent samples t ‐test, p < 0.05). The logistic regression model explained the need for changing health workforce management. Results The results reveal that the physicians engaged in the fight against the spread of COVID‐19 (64.4% of the respondents) more often than their counterparts, were clinicians from the public sector, younger, with less work experience, influenced negatively by the pandemic, and reassigned to other positions ( p < 0.001). Health workers dissatisfied with workplace preparedness and those reassigned due to COVID‐19 were by 2.61 times and 1.38 times, respectively, more likely than their counterparts to consider changes in health workforce management. Discussion & Conclusion COVID‐19 underlines the need for changes in health workforce management during public health emergencies. An internal incident management team and a panel of external experts may support health workforce management during the prolonged and rapidly changing crises.