The project
Swiss COhort of Healthcare Professionals and Informal CAregivers (SCOHPICA) is a project in partnership with Unisanté, La Source Institute and School of nursing.
As the Swiss population is ageing and chronic illnesses are increasing, the healthcare system needs to undergo some reorganizations. A large amount of evidence shows that healthcare professionals’ and informal caregivers’ well-being and quality of life is at risk, which impacts on their activities and professional trajectories. Most notably, these issues increase the absenteeism and turnover in healthcare professionals.
So far, Swiss healthcare system has been alleviating the shortage of healthcare professionals by employing some workers from other countries. L’Observatoire Suisse de La Santé (OBSAN) expects the need of healthcare workers will be only at 72% covered in 2029. The improvement of healthcare professionals’ work condition is thus urgent.
Although healthcare professionals and informal caregivers are key actors of healthcare systems, there are no national longitudinal data about healthcare professionals nor informal caregivers to this day. Constituting a long-term national cohort of both professionals and informal caregivers would allow a better understanding of the issues they encounter in order to improve their work conditions and their everyday lives.
SCOHPICA aims to better understand healthcare professionals’ and informal caregivers’ trajectories and experiences and to identify optimal conditions for high-quality professional practice and informal caregivers’ support.
This project is constituted of two cohorts of important stakeholders of the healthcare system in the future: healthcare professionals and informal caregivers.
Objectives of the cohort of healthcare professionals
The cohort of healthcare professionals aims :
- to better understand healthcare professionals trajectories and experiences and identify conditions and situations that impact professional’s intention to stay in their profession and/or institution;
- to follow the evolution over time of different groups of healthcare professionals, and monitor their well-being and determinants according to professional context, evolving politics and healthcare system;
- to link identified trajectories and professional well-being; and
- to identify professionals’ needs and optimal conditions for professional practice, and propose concrete pathways to sustain the healthcare workforce.
Objectives of the cohort of informal caregivers
The cohort of informal caregivers aims :
- to better understand personal trajectories and experiences and identify conditions and situations that impact individuals’ willingness to act as informal caregivers and their desire to discard or maintain this role;
- to monitor the evolution and personal well-being of different groups of informal caregivers over time and identify its determinant, according to professional context, relationship to person receiving care, social and economic factors, evolving politics and healthcare system;
- to link identified trajectories and personal well-being; and
- to be able to identify from the gathered data optimal conditions for informal care practice and concrete pathways to formally recognize and sustain informal caregivers.
Informal caregivers are people of all ages who take care or support someone with whom they have a relation (i.e. family, spouse, friends). They provide assistance with activities of the daily living (ADLs) when their relative or friend is not able to perform them anymore. This dependence can be caused by a physical or psychological disease, a disability or a fragility. Informal caregivers provide this support on a long-term basis and are involved to a large extent.
Methodology
Methods
SCOHPICA is an open prospective cohort study in the French-, Italian- and German-speaking parts of Switzerland.
This project uses mixed-methods; quantitative data will be assessed once a year (questionnaire) and qualitative data (interviews) once every two years.
Timeline
The healthcare professionals’ cohort began in autumn 2022 and the informal caregivers’ in the beginning of 2024.
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FAQ
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In Switzerland.
The project targets every healthcare professional having a clinical activity in Switzerland in every domain (stationary, ambulatory, community, home care) and status (employee or independent).
However, other healthcare professionals not cited in the list above can participate. The results will be communicated to health stakeholders.
Informal caregivers are persons of all ages who take care or support someone with whom they have a relation (i.e. family, spouse, and friends). They provide assistance with activities of the daily living (ADLs) when their relative or friend is not able to perform them anymore.
This dependence can be caused by a physical or psychological disease, a disability or a fragility. Informal caregivers provide this support on a long-term basis and are involved to a large extent.
Contact us at this address if you any further question: scohpica@unisante.ch