The aim of the I-CARE study is to improve our understanding of the personal and work-related factors that are related to healthcare workers’ intentions or actions to change or leave their jobs. In particular, we wish to understand how these factors might differ for staff from minoritised groups (focusing on ethnicity and migration status), and to explore potential reasons for this. The I-CARE study builds on the UK-REACH study.
The UK-REACH study was set up to understand how personal (including ethnicity) and work-related factors related to the physical and mental health of healthcare workers and their experiences of working during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Specialist Registrar in Infectious Diseases tells us of his experiences of both treating and researching the disease, as well as suffering from COVID-19 himself.
COVID-19 spread rapidly across the world causing significant illness in many countries.
As the pandemic moved through the UK, there was concern that healthcare workers from ethnic minority
groups were at increased risk of poor outcomes. It was therefore important to understand the
differences between COVID-19 diagnosis and clinical outcomes, professional practices,
and well-being among ethnic minority healthcare workers to inform the responses and support
that we give these staff.
As we move beyond the pandemic the main challenges have shifted. Workload pressures on the
healthcare workers have been sustained. The impact of long COVID is poorly defined.
To address this gap in our understanding, UK-REACH was set up to undertake a range of programmes, including recruiting 18-30,000 healthcare workers into a cohort study, to gain a comprehensive picture of the impact of COVID-19 on the physical and mental well-being of ethnic minority healthcare workers. Exploration of the sensitivities of using and linking staff data to healthcare data complement the outcomes ensuring public acceptability. The cohort is now helping us to understand sustained issues, such as the impact of Long-COVID and other post-pandemic pressures on health care workers.
UK-REACH provided novel evidence on COVID-19 outcomes among ethnic minority healthcare workers and continues to inform policy to reduce risks and support improvements to the physical and mental health of health care workers. Ultimately, this will reduce health inequalities and improve the long term health outcomes of healthcare workers and the patients they care for.