Three Bright Spots Highlighted by Governmental Public Health Employees’ Experiences Serving in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Posted on May 22, 2024 by Emilie R. Madsen

This entry is part 16 of 16 in the series May 2024

Positive aspects or “bright spots” of the pandemic response, identified by governmental public health employees, offer important lessons and opportunities for growth for state and local public health agencies in both day-to-day and emergency preparedness planning capacities.

While much attention has been given to the public health challenges experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, three new research briefs highlight bright spots or positive experiences that provide valuable insights and lessons from the workforce.

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Focusing specifically on positive lessons identified during the analysis conducted for a previous study “Qualitative Insights from Governmental Public Health Employees About Experiences Serving During the COVID-19 Pandemic, PH WINS 2021,” the three research briefs examine positive workforce experiences with leadership, on-the-job learning, and teamwork and collaboration. These topics were among the most commonly noted positive responses to an open-ended question asking public health employee experiences serving during the pandemic response. Although it can be difficult to focus on positive outcomes given the immense loss experienced during the pandemic, these bright spots offer valuable learning opportunities that can inform ongoing emergency response planning and system improvement. They also offer potential for strengthening morale among the public health workforce and supporting employee well-being.

The protracted COVID-19 response underscored the crucial role of effective leadership. The first of the three bright spots briefs “Leadership: Bright Spots of Governmental Public Health Employee Reflections on the COVID-19 Response” emphasized the positive impact of effective leadership communication during emergency events, especially in motivating and improving perceptions of the workplace during times of uncertainty. In addition, ensuring that leaders are competent and have training in strategic thinking and change management is essential to leading their health departments during crisis events. Creating safe and supportive work environment that cultivates comradery among employees should be a leadership priority during protracted response events.

The pandemic required a significant need for innovation and adaptation among the public health workforce, which is highlighted in “On-the-Job Learning: Bright Spots of Governmental Public Health Employee Reflections on the COVID-19 Response.” Ensuring that governmental public health employees of all supervisory levels are provided public health communication training during non-emergency response periods was recognized as fundamental in better preparing for crises. Also, public health agencies may benefit from inquiring about the new technical skills acquired during the pandemic response to address which skills should be supported and expanded upon for future emergency events. The experiences and new skills acquired by governmental public health employees’ who served in the pandemic response should be recognized by public health leadership when considering employees for career development and promotional opportunities.

Internal teamwork and external collaboration played critical roles in the pandemic response, facilitating vaccine promotion and establishing testing sites and safe spaces for isolation, as well as resource and information distribution. “Teamwork and Collaboration: Bright Spots of Governmental Public Health Employee Reflections on the COVID-19 Response” illustrated the critical need for public health agencies to maintain ongoing external collaboration and partnerships, with respect to both day-to-day and emergency preparedness planning. Governmental public health employees emphasized their desire to increase cross-division, internal teamwork outside of crisis situations, as a means to improve workforce satisfaction and better support future response efforts. In particular, teamwork and collaboration offered valuable opportunities for innovation in the response.

These research briefs are centered on important lessons and opportunities for growth within governmental public health agencies in accordance with bright spots or lessons shared from positive experiences of workers during the response. Findings from this work are relevant to public health practitioners and policymakers working to improve training and emergency planning. Celebrating public health employee voices is a key step in informing system improvements. This work highlights specific skills and roles that employees found helpful and beneficial during the COVID-19 response. Expanding these skills to more employees will be beneficial for future response events. Learning from the bright spots of the response and their direct applicability to the workforce in day-to-day and emergency capacities will benefit public health agencies and their workforce.

Acknowledgements

The bright spots research briefs were coauthored by Dr. Valerie A. Yeager at the Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health and Ms. Kay Schaffer and Dr. Rachel Hare Bork of the de Beaumont Foundation.

Author Profile

Emilie R. Madsen: Emilie R. Madsen, M.A., is a PhD Candidate in Health Communication at Indiana University, Indianapolis. She received her M.A. in Mass Communications and B.A. in English from University of South Florida. Her research focuses on organizational and mediated communication, and health campaigns with a focus on health literacy, message design, and technology.