Experiences of Safety-Net Practice Clinicians Participating in the National Health Service Corps During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Objectives:

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly harsh for low-income and racial and ethnic minority communities. It is not known how the pandemic has affected clinicians who provide care to these communities through safety-net practices, including clinicians participating in the National Health Service Corps (NHSC).

Methods:

In late 2020, we surveyed clinicians who were serving in the NHSC as of July 1, 2020, in 20 states. Clinicians reported on work and job changes and their current well-being, among other measures. Analyses adjusted for differences in subgroup response rates and clustering of clinicians within practices.

Results:

Of 4263 surveyed clinicians, 1890 (44.3%) responded. Work for most NHSC clinicians was affected by the pandemic, including 64.5% whose office visit numbers fell by half and 62.5% for whom most visits occurred virtually. Fewer experienced changes in their jobs; for example, only 14.9% had been furloughed. Three-quarters (76.6%) of these NHSC clinicians scored in at-risk levels for their well-being. Compared with primary care and behavioral health clinicians, dental clinicians much more often had been furloughed and had their practices close temporarily.

Conclusions:

The pandemic has disrupted the work, jobs, and mental health of NHSC clinicians in ways similar to its reported effects on outpatient clinicians generally. Because clinicians’ mental health worsens after a pandemic, which leads to patient disengagement and job turnover, national programs and policies should help safety-net practices build cultures that support and give greater priority to clinicians’ work, job, and mental health needs now and before the next pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all communities in the United States, but infections, deaths, and financial and social disruption have been most severe in low-income, socially vulnerable, and predominantly racial and ethnic minority communities, both rural and urban.^1-7 Consequently, among all outpatient practices, those that serve these communities may have been disproportionately affected, including federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), Indian Health Service (IHS) and tribal health centers, community mental health and drug treatment centers, and other safety-net practices.

Safety-net practices have long been challenged to maintain adequate clinician staffing.^8-10 For many, the loan repayment programs of the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) have provided critical recruitment and retention incentives: 13 000 clinicians currently practicing in safety-net sites receive support from the NHSC.^11-14

In 2018 and 2019, when thousands of clinicians were contracting with the NHSC for a standard, 2-year initial loan repayment service term, few anticipated that a global pandemic would occur while they served. When the pandemic arrived, NHSC participants found themselves on the frontlines of care in many of the nation’s hardest-hit communities. For many NHSC clinicians, the pandemic has likely heightened a sense of purpose and meaning in their work. However, like all clinicians, NHSC participants have risked infection through their work, have had to negotiate a shift to virtual care and many other changes in care processes, and have sometimes faced disruptive job changes, such as reduced hours, furloughs, and practice closures.^15-21

NHSC clinicians are contractually obligated to practice only in approved sites and for a specified minimum number of hours each week, with restrictions on taking leave from their jobs. ²² NHSC service contracts were not designed for the exigencies of a pandemic. The NHSC has helped clinicians reconcile pandemic-related work and job changes with their contract obligations, extending contracts to accommodate periods of work-hour reductions and furloughs, and providing flexibility to allow telework and new temporary work sites. ²³

Experiences during the pandemic have deeply affected clinicians personally and professionally.^21,24-27 Learning more about the pandemic experiences of NHSC participants is important to understanding how this valuable workforce has been affected and to anticipate how their future work and retention in their safety-net sites may be affected.^28-30 The additional $800 million designated for the NHSC in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 makes understanding the pandemic’s impact on its current participants particularly important. ³¹

This study used survey data to characterize the experiences of NHSC participants in 20 states through the pandemic’s first 9 months. It also describes their perceived sources of stress during the pandemic and well-being as of 9 months into the pandemic. We contrasted experiences for clinicians in primary care, dental health, and behavioral health disciplines, who by the differing nature of their work and practice settings may be experiencing the pandemic differently.

Methods

In winter 2020, we surveyed all 3886 clinicians who, as of July 1, 2020, were participating in the NHSC’s Loan Repayment Program (LRP), Rural Community LRP, Substance Use Disorder Workforce LRP, and Scholarship Program in 20 states (Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia, and Wyoming). ³² We also surveyed all 377 clinicians participating in joint NHSC–state LRPs in 12 of these 20 states; 3 states do not offer joint NHSC–state LRPs, and we did not have roster data to contact joint NHSC–state LRP participants in 5 states. Together, these 4263 clinicians constituted about one-third of all clinicians serving in the NHSC. ¹² The 20 states included in this study participated in the Provider Retention & Information System Management (PRISM) Collaborative (www.3rnet.org/prism), which annually collects questionnaire feedback from clinicians in the NHSC and states’ similar programs to assess program outcomes and to know how to better support clinicians. ³³ This study drew on the PRISM Collaborative’s existing relationships among states, its on-hand roster data for clinicians participating in NHSC and joint NHSC–state programs, and clinicians’ familiarity and strong participation in the PRISM Collaborative’s questionnaires. One member state did not participate in this COVID-19 study. The 20 participating states did not differ statistically from the 30 other states, in both mean and median total population, per-capita income, percentage population living in urban areas, and number of known positive COVID-19 infections as of December 15, 2020^34-37; however, only 1 participating state was in the Deep South and only 1 was in New England.

The survey opened on November 24, 2020, and closed on February 7, 2021. Because nearly all NHSC contracts begin and end in the months between July and September, and given this study’s July 1 participation eligibility date, a late November survey meant that about half will have recently completed an initial 2-year NHSC or 1-year continuation contract term, and half would have been participating for at least 15 months.

Participant roster data provided for the PRISM Collaborative’s ongoing feedback questionnaires by the NHSC and member agencies of the states’ PRISM Collaborative were used to identify potential participants and individualize questionnaires. Clinicians were emailed invitations to participate in a voluntary and anonymous study, with links to the online questionnaire on the Qualtrics 2020 platform (Qualtrics). They received biweekly reminders. This study was exempted from human subjects review by the Office of Human Research Ethics of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Questionnaire

The questionnaire asked clinicians to report on their experiences at their current practices or where they had most recently worked if not currently employed. Clinicians verified that they would be reporting on the practices listed in NHSC and the PRISM Collaborative’s state agency records, or they reported the location of a new practice if they had moved.

Questions asked how patients or clients of their practices had been affected in the pandemic, how their daily work and jobs (employment situations) had changed, and their sources of stress, all derived from the many published reports on the pandemic’s effects on clinicians and people generally.^18,38-42 We used a 7-item Well-Being Index to assess clinicians’ feelings of fatigue, depression, burnout, anxiety/stress, and mental and physical quality of life. This index has been validated as a screening tool for mental distress in both health professionals and non–health care workers, correlating with other validated measures of self-reported quality of life, fatigue, burnout, suicidal ideation, medical errors, and intent to leave one’s current job.^43-46 In using the 7-item Well-Being Index, we used the criterion of ≥2 yes responses reflecting negative mental or physical states in the previous month as the threshold level for being at risk for mental distress for US workers generally. ⁴⁴ One positive item recently added to this index—finding work meaningful—was also queried but analyzed as an individual item. ⁴⁴ We added a second positive item querying clinicians’ sense of accomplishment from their job, adapted from the Minnesota Job Satisfaction scale. ⁴⁷

A draft questionnaire received feedback from academic clinicians and workforce researchers in 5 of the surveyed disciplines: medicine, physician assistant, nursing, social work, and psychology. The subsequently revised questionnaire was then pilot tested with 26 NHSC-participating clinicians in 3 states.

Analysis

Item completion rates were >99% for clinicians’ descriptions of the pandemic’s impact on their work, jobs, stress, and well-being; 89% for reports of having children at home; and >95% for estimates of the pandemic’s effects on patients.

We dichotomized Likert-scaled responses to items quantifying the degree of stress perceived from various sources both for ease of visualization and because finding something causes “moderate” stress intuitively seems like an important step up from it causing “minimal” stress, and we conducted statistical comparisons of groups for the dichotomized data. All quantitative analyses incorporated poststratification weights ⁴⁸ to adjust responses from participants to reflect all surveyed clinicians in the 20 states. Weighting was done by 4 characteristics of clinicians for which response rates meaningfully differed and that we anticipated might be related to clinicians’ pandemic experiences: males versus females; behavioral health providers versus primary care and dental health clinicians; respondents currently serving an NHSC contract versus those who recently completed an NHSC contract; and participants of 3 groups of programs, specifically joint NHSC–state LRPs versus Rural Community LRP, Substance Use Disorder LRP, and Scholarship Programs versus the NHSC LRP. Weights for the 21 strata ranged from 0.542 to 1.432, with most large strata having weights near 1.0. The calculated design effect due to weights was 1.042.

With 1 exception, we used SPSS version 26 (IBM Corp) to perform all analyses. Because about half of respondents worked in practices with other respondents, we used the Complex Samples feature of SPSS, which uses an adjusted F statistic, a variant of the second-order Rao–Scott adjusted χ², in statistical tests of differences between groups on nominal variables. ⁴⁹ A false discovery rate–adjusted P value of .05 was set for significance using the Hochberg adjustment through the SAS (SAS Institute, Inc) MULTTEST procedure to account for this study’s 45 group comparisons. ⁵⁰

Results

Of the 4263 NHSC clinicians surveyed, 1890 (44.3%) responded. Respondents worked in a total of 1294 practices in 20 states. Response rates were significantly higher for behavioral health providers than for primary care and dental health clinicians (49.8% vs 41.9%; P < .001); for females than for males (42.9% vs 38.4%; P = .01); for participants in the joint NHSC–state LRPs than for participants in the Rural Community LRP, Substance Use Disorder LRP, and Scholarship Programs and for participants in the NHSC LRP (66.0% vs 48.9% vs 40.9%; P < .001); and for clinicians midway through NHSC contract periods at the time of the survey than for clinicians who had recently completed a contract (51.9% vs 39.2%; P < .001). These subgroup response rate differences were incorporated into poststratification weights.

Clinicians and Their Work Settings

Weighted to reflect all 4263 clinicians surveyed in these 20 states, 76.0% of respondents were serving in the NHSC LRP (Table 1). Among disciplines, nurse practitioners were the most numerous (24.7% of all clinicians), followed by physicians (15.1%) and dentists (12.3%). Most worked in FQHCs (57.5%) and in metropolitan areas (64.5%). Nearly three-quarters were female (74.3%), and most reported having children at home (57.0%).

Table 1.

Description of clinicians participating in the National Health Service Corps in 20 states during the COVID-19 pandemic ^a

Characteristic	Respondents
	No. (unadjusted %) (n = 1890 b )	Weighted % c
NHSC program
LRP	1325 (70.1)	76.0
Rural Community LRP	52 (2.8)	2.3
Scholarship	112 (5.9)	6.0
Substance Use Disorder Workforce LRP	152 (8.0)	6.8
Joint NHSC–state LRP	249 (13.2)	8.8
NHSC status at time of survey
Contract currently active	1032 (54.6)	48.6
Contract completed since July 1, 2020	858 (45.4)	51.4
Discipline
Primary care
Physician	277 (14.7)	15.1
Nurse practitioner	434 (23.0)	24.7
Physician assistant	197 (10.4)	11.3
Other primary care	77 (4.1)	3.5
Dental health
Dentist	213 (11.3)	12.3
Dental hygienist	38 (2.0)	2.3
Behavioral health
Licensed clinical social worker	234 (12.4)	11.1
Licensed professional counselor	217 (11.5)	10.3
Psychologist	94 (5.0)	4.7
Other behavioral health	109 (5.8)	4.7
Type of practice site
FQHC–CHC	1046 (55.3)	57.5
Mental health or SUD facility	248 (13.1)	11.7
IHS or tribal site	225 (11.9)	12.0
Rural health clinic	105 (5.6)	5.4
Correctional facility	42 (2.2)	2.0
Other office-based site	201 (10.6)	10.4
Hospital-based site	23 (1.2)	1.0
Rural/urban d
Metropolitan	1212 (64.1)	64.5
Micropolitan	345 (18.3)	18.1
Nonmetropolitan	332 (17.6)	17.3
Sex
Female	1422 (75.2)	74.3
Male	468 (24.8)	25.7
Age, y
≤34	560 (29.8)	29.7
35-39	513 (27.3)	27.2
40-49	525 (27.9)	28.1
≥50	281 (15.0)	14.9
Has children at home
Yes	956 (57.0)	57.0
No	720 (43.0)	43.0
Is or lives with person at high risk for COVID-19 complications
Yes	755 (40.0)	39.7
No	1132 (60.0)	60.3

Abbreviations: FQHC–CHC, Federally Qualified Health Center–Community Health Center; IHS, Indian Health Service; LRP, Loan Repayment Program; NHSC, National Health Service Corps; SUD, substance use disorder.

^aClinicians serving in the NHSC as of July 1, 2020, in 20 states were surveyed by the authors in late 2020.

^bBecause of missing values, counts do not total to 1890 for the variables age, children at home, rural/urban location, and at high risk for COVID-19 complications. Percentages may not add to 100 because of rounding.

^cWeighted for group response rate differences by sex, discipline group, whether clinicians were currently serving versus recently completed NHSC contracts, and specific NHSC program.

^dBased on March 2020 core based statistical areas from the US Office of Management and Budget (https://www.census.gov/geographies/reference-files/time-series/demo/metro-micro/delineation-files.html).

Pandemic’s Perceived Effects on Patients/Clients

About half of clinicians overall and also within each of the primary care, dental health, and behavioral health groups reported that the pandemic was adversely affecting the physical health of at least half of the patients/clients (Table 2). More than three-quarters of clinicians (83.0%) reported similar adverse effects on the mental health of half or more of their patients/clients. Behavioral health practitioners almost universally saw such an impact (92.8%) and were also most likely to report their clients had increased use of alcohol or abused substances. Three-quarters of clinicians reported that the pandemic had adversely affected the financial situations of half or more of their patients/clients.

Table 2.

Percentage of clinicians participating in the National Health Service Corps in 20 states reporting various effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients, changes in their work and jobs, and supports received from their practices ^a

Item	All NHSC clinicians (n = 1890)	Clinician subgroups
		Primary care (n = 985)	Dental health (n = 251)	Behavioral health (n = 654)	Adjusted P value b
Effects on patients/clients: percentage of clinicians who reported at least half of patients/clients were affected
Physical health	50.8	53.7	48.7	46.3	.03
Mental health	83.0	82.0	65.3	92.8	<.002
Use of alcohol or drugs	36.8	31.9	33.5	47.1	<.002
Financial situations	76.0	75.7	75.1	76.9	.86
Work changes (for ≥4 weeks)
In-office patient/client visit numbers   decreased >50%	64.5	62.3	83.5	59.6	<.002
In-office patient visit numbers   increased >25%	23.3	24.7	12.1	26.0	<.002
≥50% of your total daily patient   visits occurred by telephone and/  or telehealth	62.5	59.4	24.0	86.0	<.002
Scope of work significantly   narrowed (ie, limited to emergency   care or hospital work)	27.6	18.6	86.5	15.5	<.002
Your organization confine[d] the   location of your work to one site,   expanded it to a new site, or   moved it to a different site	42.7	37.1	54.1	47.3	<.002
Job changes (for ≥4 weeks)
Paid daily work hours reduced	13.9	9.6	40.1	9.0	<.002
Salary or benefits reduced	16.3	14.7	30.7	12.6	<.002
Salary increased, perhaps for hazard   pay	13.3	15.3	13.2	9.6	.02
Temporarily laid off (furloughed)	9.3	3.5	40.1	5.0	<.002
Permanently laid off	2.4	1.9	6.9	1.2	<.002
Practice closed temporarily ≥4   weeks	14.9	10.5	42.5	9.8	<.002
Practice/clinic closed permanently	1.7	1.1	4.4	1.5	.002
Protections and resources provided
Free COVID-19 testing	70.5	75.5	72.4	60.3	<.002
Free medical care if infected with   COVID-19	22.5	24.9	30.6	14.5	<.002
Option to work at least partially   from home	55.0	49.4	22.0	80.1	<.002
Resources needed to work from   home, like a computer or   broadband connection	46.7	43.5	22.1	63.1	<.002
Option to move to low-risk   work area if in a high-risk group   for COVID-19 complications	43.7	42.0	18.3	59.2	<.002
Expanded assistance with childcare   and costs	14.1	14.4	14.4	13.3	.88
Stress management program or   resources	48.3	47.3	55.1	47.2	.14

Abbreviation: NHSC, National Health Service Corps.

^aClinicians serving in the NHSC as of July 1, 2020, in 20 states were surveyed by the authors in late 2020.

^bDetermined by second-order Rao–Scott adjusted χ² test. False discovery rate–adjusted P value to account for the study’s multiple comparisons, with P < .05 considered significant.

Changes in NHSC Clinicians’ Work During the Pandemic

The pandemic had affected the work of most NHSC clinicians (Table 2). Nearly two-thirds reported periods of at least 4 weeks when in-office patient visits fell by more than half from the previous year, while nearly one-quarter reported a period when in-office visits increased more than 25%. Nearly two-thirds also reported a period when at least half of their daily visits occurred by telephone or telehealth, nearly one-quarter reported the scope of their work was significantly narrowed, and 42.7% reported that the location of their work was changed.

Among the discipline groups, dental health clinicians were most likely to have experienced changes to their work, including 83.5% who reported declines in office visit numbers by more than half and 86.5% whose scope of care narrowed. Behavioral health practitioners were most likely to report that most visits occurred by telehealth or telephone (86.0%) and least likely to have their scope of work narrowed (15.5%).

Changes to NHSC Clinicians’ Jobs During the Pandemic

Far fewer NHSC clinicians reported changes to their jobs, such as in their work hours and pay, than changes in their work activities (Table 2). About 1 in 6 reported a reduction in paid work hours, a reduction in salary or benefits, or a temporary practice closure. A similar number reported a salary increase. Nearly 1 in 10 was furloughed, and very few reported that their practices closed permanently (1.7%) or that they were laid off (2.4%).

Many more dental clinicians reported changes to their jobs than other groups: about 40% had paid work hours reduced, had been furloughed, or had practices closed temporarily.

Protections and Resources Provided by Practices

Most NHSC clinicians reported that their practices provided them with free COVID-19 testing, and about half were allowed to work at least partially from home (Table 2). Fewer had the option to move to low-risk work areas if they were in a COVID-19 high-risk group (43.7%). Few received free medical care if infected with COVID-19 or assistance with childcare and its costs.

Across the groups, dental health clinicians least often could work from home (22.0%) or move to a lower-risk work area (18.3%), whereas more behavioral health providers could do both.

Perceived Sources of Stress

The national elections and politics were reported as a moderate or severe stressor by more clinicians—about 80%than the other 5 potential sources of stress queried (Figure). Among clinicians with children at home, nearly as many reported moderate or severe stress meeting their children’s needs (75.0%), and 56.5% of all clinicians reported such stress from the issues highlighted by the Black Lives Matter movement. Fewer than half reported moderate or severe stress regarding their personal finances and from potential or actual job loss, and one-third reported moderate or severe stress related to their NHSC participation.

Figure.

Weighted percentage of NHSC clinician–participants in 20 states (n = 1890) who reported moderate or severe stress (vs no stress or minimal stress) from various sources during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data for “meeting your children’s needs” were based only on clinicians who reported having children at home. Item on participation in the NHSC was added late to the questionnaire; percentages were based on data available from 580 subsequent respondents. Weighted for group response rate differences by sex, discipline group, whether clinicians were currently serving versus recently completed NHSC contracts, and specific NHSC program. False-discovery rate–adjusted P value used to account for the study’s multiple comparisons, with P < .05 considered significant.

Abbreviation: NHSC, National Health Service Corps.

Dental practitioners most often reported moderate or severe stress from the possibility of or actually losing their jobs (64.1%), personal finances (64.2%), and their NHSC participation (53.5%).

Well-Being

Three-quarters (76.6%) of all NHSC clinicians had a Well-Being Index value ≥2 (indicating being at risk for mental distress); this percentage was lower (66.8%) among dental clinicians (Table 3). Among the component items of this index, 75.9% reported feeling burned out from their work; 66.2% reported being bothered by emotional problems such as feeling anxious, depressed, and irritable; 61.2% worried that work was hardening them emotionally; and 47.3% felt bothered by emotional problems such as feeling down, depressed, or hopeless. Among the 3 discipline groups, dental clinicians were least likely to respond yes on 5 of the items.

Table 3.

Percentage of clinicians participating in the National Health Service Corps in 20 states reporting various mental health states at 9-11 months into the COVID-19 pandemic ^a

Item	All NHSC clinicians (n = 1890)	Clinician subgroups
		Primary care (n = 985)	Dental health (n = 251)	Behavioral health (n = 654)	Adjusted P value b
Well-Being Index ≥2, on a  7-item scale c	76.6	77.4	66.8	79.6	<.002
Well-being Index items: During the  past month have you . . .
Felt burned out from your   work?	75.9	77.7	64.6	78.0	<.002
Worried that your work is   hardening you emotionally?	61.2	65.4	54.2	57.0	<.002
Been bothered by feeling down,   depressed, or hopeless?	47.3	46.5	41.2	51.8	.02
Have you felt that all things you   had to do were piling up so high   that you could not overcome   them?	40.6	41.9	31.4	42.7	.006
Been bothered by emotional   problems (such as feeling   anxious, depressed, or   irritable)?	66.2	64.3	60.7	72.1	.002
Has your physical health   interfered with your ability to   do your daily work at home   and/or away from home?	18.2	17.0	18.5	20.2	.32
Fallen asleep while stopped in   traffic or driving?	3.1	3.5	3.7	2.1	.30
Finds work is meaningful during past  month d	84.0	83.6	84.0	84.8	.86
Satisfied with the feeling of   accomplishment from work   during the pandemic e	71.6	71.1	75.7	70.5	.34

Abbreviation: NHSC, National Health Service Corps.

^aClinicians serving in the NHSC as of July 1, 2020, in 20 states were surveyed by the authors in late 2020.

^bDetermined by second-order Rao–Scott adjusted χ² test. False-discovery rate–adjusted P value to account for the study’s multiple comparisons, with P < .05 considered significant.

^c≥2 yes responses reflecting negative mental or physical states in the previous month used as threshold level for being at risk for mental distress. ⁴⁵

^dResponses of “agree,” “strongly agree,” or “very strongly agree” vs “neither agree nor disagree,” “disagree,” “strongly disagree,” or “very strongly disagree.”

^eResponses of “satisfied,” “very satisfied,” or “extremely satisfied” vs “not satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied.”

On the positive side, 84.0% of NHSC clinicians reported that they found work meaningful during the previous month, and 71.6% reported that they were satisfied or very satisfied with feelings of accomplishment in their work during the pandemic.

Changes in NHSC Contracts Because of the Pandemic

We asked clinicians about specific changes made in their NHSC contracts “because of the pandemic and its disruptions to patient/client care.” Contract extensions were the most common changes reported (16.9%), followed by temporary contract suspensions (5.6%) (Table 4). Only 0.3% reported that their contracts were closed early. Dental clinicians reported far more changes in their NHSC contracts.

Table 4.

Percentage of clinicians participating in the National Health Service Corps in 20 states reporting various changes to their NHSC contracts because of the COVID-19 pandemic ^a

Item	All NHSC clinicians (n = 1890)	Clinician subgroup
		Primary care (n = 985)	Dental health (n = 251)	Behavioral health (n = 654)	Adjusted P value b
Because of the pandemic and  its disruptions to patient/ client care, was your  NHSC c contract . . .
End-date extended?	16.9	12.0	49.4	10.4	<.002
Changed from full-time   to part-time?	1.0	1.0	1.9	0.7	.37
Officially relocated to a   new site?	3.6	4.0	7.0	1.4	<.002
Temporarily suspended?	5.6	2.6	24.2	2.3	<.002
Permanently suspended   early?	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.2	.75
Overall, ≥1 reported  contract change	17.9	14.0	50.2	11.1	<.002

Abbreviation: NHSC, National Health Service Corps.

^aClinicians serving in the NHSC as of July 1, 2020, in 20 states were surveyed by the authors in late 2020.

^bDetermined by second-order Rao–Scott adjusted χ² test. False-discovery rate–adjusted P value to account for the study’s multiple comparisons, with P < .05 considered significant.

^cIn the questionnaire, clinicians were presented with the name of their NHSC program.

Discussion

The experiences of clinicians serving in the NHSC during the COVID-19 pandemic likely differ greatly from all previous NHSC cohorts during the program’s nearly 50 years. Many experienced periods when patient numbers fell by more than half, most visits occurred virtually, in-person work was relocated, and the services they provided were restricted. Some of these changes violated the terms of their NHSC contracts, which were accommodated by contract amendments for 1 in 5 participants, most often to extend end dates. We cannot know if these work changes differed in magnitude or duration from those of outpatient clinicians generally, because available data for other clinician groups are available only for specific weeks or months during the pandemic, and measures have lacked standard definitions and instruments.^{15,40,42,51-53}

The employment situations of this study’s NHSC participants in primary care and behavioral health disciplines were generally unaffected during the pandemic. Relatively few reported reductions in hours or salaries or temporary practice closures, and very few reported furloughs, permanent layoffs, or permanent practice closures. Reported employment for clinicians working in FHQCs and in outpatient practices generally was similarly only occasionally affected by the pandemic.^18,42,54

As it has for dentists generally and dentists working in public health settings, ⁵³ the COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly hard on both the work and employment of dental participants of the NHSC. In this study, they were 4 times more likely than primary care and behavioral health participants to have their scope of care narrowed, practices closed temporarily and permanently, paid daily work hours reduced, and their NHSC contracts consequently amended. Not surprisingly, dental participants much more frequently reported moderate or severe stress about losing their jobs, personal finances, and their NHSC participation.

The most widely perceived stressors for this study’s NHSC clinicians were the fall 2020 national elections and politics, the issues of the Black Lives Matter movement, and meeting children’s needs among clinicians with children. These have been ubiquitous stressors in the United States during the pandemic and are generally unrelated to clinicians’ work and NHSC participation.

Overall, three-quarters (76.6%) of this study’s NHSC participants responded yes to ≥2 of the 7 questions of the Well-Being Index, a useful threshold for identifying people who also report lower quality of life, fatigue, burnout, medical errors, career dissatisfaction, and intent to leave their current jobs.^44-46 This percentage exceeds the 56.4% of a national physician sample in 2011 that similarly responded yes to ≥2 questions on this index, as well as the 50.9% of a probability sample of the US population in 2014 who did so.

Previous pandemics have also had various positive psychological effects on clinicians, including heightened appreciation for the meaning and importance of their work.^55,56 Eighty-four percent of this study’s NHSC clinicians reported finding work meaningful in the preceding month—at the highest peak to date in the COVID-19 pandemic nationally—and 72% were satisfied with their feelings of accomplishment from work during the pandemic.

Pandemic-related federal assistance to safety-net practices has helped them with finances, reporting requirements, capacity for telehealth, and COVID-19 screening and vaccination.^57-60 We are unaware of resources or guidance provided to safety-net practices to help them better support clinicians and other staff members and unaware of federal resources provided directly to these clinicians to help them in their work or personally. Neglecting the needs of frontline health care workers, labeled the “stoic approach” to health care workforce management within organizations during the pandemic, ⁶¹ has left NHSC participants and other clinicians in safety-net practices relying solely on what their typically small and tightly resourced practices could offer. Half of this study’s NHSC clinicians had no option to work from home or move to a low-risk area, half had no help in stress management, and few had assistance with childcare.

As seen consistently for clinicians following previous coronavirus, HIV/AIDS, Ebola, and other epidemics, the most important long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will likely be on clinicians' mental health. Studies conducted up to 3 years following earlier pandemics have documented persistent stress, anxiety, psychological distress, posttraumatic stress disorder, burnout, and worsened depression.^55,62-64 These mental states for clinicians are known to correlate with their disengagement from patients, medical errors, and job turnover,^65-67 which are particularly costly for safety-net practices. Because of the pandemic’s disruptions and its effects on clinicians’ mental health, the retention of this cohort of NHSC participants will likely suffer.^28-30

It may or may not be too late in this pandemic to create programs to help safety-net clinicians mentally handle peak work demands and the many work changes, stresses, and fears with patient care. Advocated strategies are to create the absolute safest working environment possible—prioritizing staff member needs along with patient needs—and to promote social supports, acknowledge stressors, reduce stigma, build cognitive–behavioral and active coping skills, screen frequently for depression, and provide ready access to professional care.^68-73 Other pandemics will come in the future, and it is critical beforehand to establish programs that support staff and a culture of organizational justice, particularly in listening to staff and giving importance to their needs related to work, work–life balance, and mental health.^15,61,62,74

Limitations

This study’s 44.3% response rate is typical for clinician surveys^75,76 but can invite response bias. The pandemic experiences of NHSC participants in these 20 states may not reflect experiences in all states. We presented findings for clinicians in 3 broad fields, which may overlook important differences among disciplines within each field. ⁷⁷ Twenty-five clinicians (1.3% of all respondents) completed NHSC service contracts before the survey and had since relocated and reported on their experiences in new practices, which may be better than where they worked in the NHSC and which they had elected to promptly leave.

If resurveyed now (fall 2021), 9 months later and 18 months into the pandemic, the number of NHSC clinicians who would report a decrease in outpatient visit numbers, practice closures, and furloughs at any point during the pandemic might be about the same as reported in this study because work and job changes for outpatient clinicians were greatest during the pandemic’s first 6 months.^38,41,78 But more clinicians now might report poor well-being, stress, depression, and burnout because of the pandemic’s prolonged course and its ongoing challenges for clinicians.

Conclusions

Like the US health care workforce generally, clinicians working in safety-net practices, including those participating in the NHSC, have been managed during the pandemic as a resource to be deployed where needed and replaced when sick. ⁷⁹ In general, clinicians have willingly complied from a sense of duty to patients, society, and practices, as well as their need for work.

NHSC participants have experienced personal risks, disruptions in their work and, for dental clinicians, disruptions in their employment. At 9 months into the pandemic, three-quarters scored in at-risk levels on their well-being. Like other people in the United States, they have been stressed by the needs of their families, politics, and other national social issues. Based on studies after other epidemics, we should anticipate that their mental health will worsen during the next few years, likely affecting their ability to meet their patients’ needs and their decisions about whether to remain in their practices. To help current as well as future NHSC participants whom safety-net practices will rely on in the next pandemic, legislators and agency administrators should create programs and policies to build a culture within safety-net practices of listening to, caring for, and supporting clinicians and staff, and that supports their mental health.