Professional Quality of Life Among Israeli Social Workers in Hospitals and a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) During the COVID-19 Pandemic

We examined differences between socialworkers in hospitals versus socialworkers in community health services regarding levels of professional quality of life (ProQoL), proximity to COVID-19, resilience, perceived social support, and preparedness for the next pandemic during waves 3–5 of the COVID-19 pandemic in Israel (December 2020–December 2021, the main COVID-19 variants were Alpha and Delta). We also examined the moderating role of resilience, social support, preparedness for the next pandemic, and health care service type in the association between proximity to COVID-19 and ProQoL. Participants were 163 social workers from four hospitals and 98 social workers from a major health maintenance organization in the community. Social workers in both settings revealed moderate–high levels of compassion satisfaction and moderate levels of burnout and secondary traumatic stress. The study’s model indicated that after controlling for the effects of the covariates, higher levels of self-reported-resilience and greater perceived organizational support were associated with higher compassion satisfaction and lower burnout and secondary traumatic stress. Furthermore, a stronger sense of preparedness for the next pandemic was related to lower levels of burnout. The model indicated that the effects of organizational support, informal social support, and preparedness on compassion satisfaction were dependent on the study group (i.e., working in hospital or community settings). Findings indicate that intervention programs should be implemented to help increase compassion satisfaction and prevent/reduce burnout and secondary traumatic stress among social workers in health care settings during health care crises. Enhancing resilience and preparedness should focus not only on the social workers as individuals but also on the institutions for which they work.