Supporting health care frontliners: Empowerment climate initiatives in an LGU-owned COVID-19 facility in Cagayan de Oro City

• Main Author: Dagalea, Alexander B.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2024
• Subjects: Medical care; Local government > Philippines > Cagayan de Oro; Public health administration—Philippines; COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-; Sociology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdd_behsc/4; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etdd_behsc/article/1003/viewcontent/2024_Dagalea_Supporting_Health_Care_Frontliners_Full_text.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted various facets of life, notably affecting frontline healthcare workers positioned as the ultimate defense against this formidable disease. This research examines the initiatives of the Local Government Unit (LGU) of Cagayan de Oro City and an LGU-owned hospital, focusing on creating an empowerment climate and its implications for the work engagement and burnout experiences of healthcare professionals. Data was gathered using a quantitative-qualitative sequential mixed method. A survey questionnaire encompassing dimensions such as leadership styles, structural empowerment, psychological empowerment, work engagement, and burnout experiences was utilized to perform quantitative analysis. Concurrently, a semi-structured interview guide was employed to gather qualitative insights. The study includes 293 survey respondents and 12 key informants (KIs) participated in the interviews. The quantitative findings show that the LGU exhibited a blend of leadership styles in addressing the city’s pandemic response. On structural empowerment, respondents demonstrated high scores in all 6 subscales, indicating a favorable perception of the medical facility’s structural support. The overall score for psychological empowerment surpassed 60 percent of the norm, reflecting a positive assessment by respondents. Work engagement, measured using Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9), revealed high levels. Burnout experiences were categorized using clinical cut-off values, with 72 percent (n=211) of respondents exhibiting no risk, 12 percent (n=35) at risk, and 16 percent (n=47) experiencing a very high risk of burnout. Qualitative insights obtained through in-depth interviews complemented the quantitative findings. Key informants highlighted diverse styles of local executive leadership, underscoring that, regardless of variations, these leadership approaches contributed to enhanced facility functioning, subsequently influencing work engagement and burnout experiences. Variations in the perception of local executive leadership emerged based on the key informants’ designations. The overall research findings suggest that LGUs can cultivate an empowering environment by implementing structural adjustments and diverse leadership philosophies through the local executive. To better understand the study’s findings, the lens of Social Empowerment was used. Social Empowerment is a process involving relationships, practices, and procedures that empowers individuals to connect with others and exert influence on their social and physical surroundings. Specifically, Zimmerman’s Empowerment Theory and Kanter’s Structural Theory were utilized. Zimmerman’s theory posits that empowerment can happen from three levels of analysis: community, organization, and individual. These levels are causes and effects of one another. For this theory, the most effective empowerment would be the combination of the three. However, it does not discount the idea that empowerment can come from just one level. Kanter’s Structural Theory supports this idea. For Kanter, the organizational structures that support a member’s work environment are vital to empowerment. It proposes that with the correct resources, individuals can enhance their skill sets, improve their decision-making, and accomplish more with the correct resources.