Stress at Work and Infectious Risk in Patients and Caregivers

In hospitals, the improvement of working conditions is often considered secondarily to patient satisfaction. Previous studies, showing statistically significant relationships, suggested the impact of hospital departments' organization (staff / patient ratio, bed distribution, caregiver's assignment), of the work environment, and the working conditions on the infectious risk at the hospital departments. In addition, organizational hospital constraints and the organization of care could equally have a major impact on the physical and psychological health of care workers (stress, fatigue, job satisfaction). To date, available data suggest that determinants of occupational stress and fatigue are multifactorial. This research aims to develop an interdisciplinary approach to link two phenomena that are often studied independently while they are closely intertwined: working conditions and infectious risk in hospitals departments. Their main objective is to study the relationship between stress and caregiver fatigue at the work, organizational determinants and infectious risk for patients (healthcare-associated infections: HAIs) and for caregivers (blood exposure accidents: BEAs). The secondary objective is to analyze how the individual characteristics of the staff, the characteristics of their employment, and the overall organization in the hospital departments where they work interact to explain their physical and psychological state of health, on the one hand, and their behavior face to work (absenteeism, turnover and hand hygiene) on the other hand. The ultimate goal of this research is to be able to propose organizational strategies aimed at both reducing the probability of occurrence of healthcare-associated infections and preventing occupational risks for caregivers.