ArticleBMJ open2021
Healthcare workers' perception of gender and work roles during the COVID-19 pandemic: a mixed-methods study.
Article in BMJ open, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- Gender disparities in hospital admission patterns during the COVID-19 health emergency: a systematic review.BMC public health · 2026Pooled it
- Fatherhood among healthcare workers: perceived work-family conflict and its influential factors during the COVID-19 pandemic: cross-sectional and exploratory longitudinal findings from the VOICE study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Canadian healthcare workforce: a rapid evidence synthesis of key considerations, lessons learned, and promising practices to address the healthcare workforce crisis.Health research policy and systems · 2025Article
- Why they come, why they stay and why they leave: a survey to understand the drivers of recruitment, retention, and attrition of allied health clinicians in an Australian metropolitan health network.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- The second victim phenomenon´s impact in male and female healthcare workers: a scoping review.International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care · 2025Article
- Psychological distress in health care workers during the beginning, the middle, and the last part of the COVID-19 pandemic.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Gender differences in the prevalence and correlates of COVID-19 fear among mental health professionals: a network perspective based on a national survey in China.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- "Family doctors are also people": a qualitative analysis of how family physicians managed competing personal and professional responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.Human resources for health · 2024Article
- Gender Differences among Nurses in Managing Arterial Puncture-Related Pain: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Inequality on the frontline: A multi-country study on gender differences in mental health among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2024Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Productivity of Workers in the Health Sector between Working in a Hospital and from Home.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Article
- Levels and Predictors of Proactive Practical Experience to Solve COVID-19 among Public Health Officers in Primary Care Units in the Upper Southern Region, Thailand: An Explanatory Mixed Methods Approach.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Article
- Still Exhausted: The Role of Residual Caregiving Fatigue on Women in Medicine and Science Across the Pipeline.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- The SIMI Gender '5 Ws' Rule for the integration of sex and gender-related variables in clinical studies towards internal medicine equitable research.Internal and emergency medicine · 2022Review
- Willingness to Work during Public Health Emergencies: A Systematic Literature Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Determining How Nurses Living With Their Families Decide to Work in a COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit: Grounded Theory Study.SAGE open nursingArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
17 authors at 6 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesA high functioning healthcare workforce is a key priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. We sought to determine how work and mental health for healthcare workers changed during the COVID-19 pandemic in a universal healthcare system, stratified by gender factors.
designA mixed-methods study was employed. Phase 1 was an anonymous, internet-based survey (7 May-15 July 2020). Phase 2 was semistructured interviews offered to all respondents upon survey completion to describe how experiences may have differed by gender identity, roles and relations.
settingNational universal healthcare system (Canada).
participants2058 Canadian healthcare worker survey respondents (87% women, 11% men, 1% transgender or Two-Spirit), including 783 health professionals, 673 allied health professionals, 557 health support staff. Of the 63 unique healthcare worker types reported, registered nurses (11.5%), physicians (9.9%) and pharmacists (4.5%) were most common. Forty-six healthcare workers were interviewed.
main outcome measuresReported pandemic-induced changes to occupational leadership roles and responsibilities, household and caregiving responsibilities, and anxiety levels by gender identity.
resultsMen (19.8%) were more likely to hold pandemic leadership roles compared with women (13.4%). Women (57.5%) were more likely to report increased domestic responsibilities than men (45%). Women and those with dependents under the age of 10 years reported the greatest levels of anxiety during the pandemic. Interviews with healthcare workers further revealed a perceived imbalance in leadership opportunities based on gender identity, a lack of workplace supports disproportionately affecting women and an increase in domestic responsibilities influenced by gender roles.
conclusionsThe COVID-19 pandemic response has important gendered effects on the healthcare workforce. Healthcare workers are central to effective pandemic control, highlighting an urgent need for a gender-transformative pandemic response strategy.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.