Extreme work in extraordinary times: the impact of COVID-stress on the resilience and burnout of frontline paramedic workers – the importance of perceived organisational support

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed significant and extreme pressure on frontline healthcare workers, including paramedics. Yet, within the human resource management (HRM) literature, little is known about how working in extreme conditions affects individual behaviours and wellbeing, or how HRM may provide coping strategies. Drawing on conservation of resources theory (COR), our study provides insights into how COVID-stress influences paramedic burnout by considering the mediating role of resilience and the moderating role of perceived organisational support (POS). Findings from a survey of 648 paramedic workers employed in Victoria, Australia, during the height of the 2020 pandemic lockdowns confirm our hypotheses. COVID-stress was negatively related to resilience. We find that resilience mediated the positive relationship between COVID-stress and burnout. Moreover, POS acted as a protective buffer, thus reducing the negative effects of COVID-stress. We make an important contribution to the literature on extreme work, as represented by COVID-stress, by demonstrating that perceived organisational support is a key resource that supports and ensures the sustainability of paramedics engaging in extreme work.