In an interview with Artsenkrant, a leading Belgian magazine for general practitioners, Project METEOR researcher Anke Boone shed light on Project METEOR’s findings regarding the situation of healthcare professionals in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis.
“We need structural adjustments to overcome problems connected with mental well-being and burnout among healthcare staff, which only increased during the pandemic,” said Boone, a PhD researcher at KU Leuven’s Centre for Environment and Health. “Our study, conducted in eight hospitals across four countries (Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland), shows that 15% of nurses and 10% of doctors wanted to leave their hospital jobs. Changes in hospitals’ culture and in work-life balance are key to improving healthcare workers’ job quality and nurturing a resilient system that empowers and supports the next generation of doctors.”
METEOR researchers found that job satisfaction, career development, and work-life balance play a significant role in influencing healthcare professionals’ decisions to stay in their current positions. The scholars proposed solutions such as onboarding and mentoring programmes to retain healthcare professionals and address the challenges posed by labour shortages, which have been intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic and increased retirements in the healthcare sector.
The interview (in Dutch) is available here.
