A reverse pattern in work motivation among Vietnamese health care workers during the prolonged COVID-19 outbreak of 2021: Determinants and implications

Background The workload burden of the COVID-19 pandemic on health systems requires not only financial support but also long-term and contextualized policies. We assessed the work motivation and its determinants among health workers at Vietnamese hospitals and facilities during the prolonged COVID-19 outbreaks in 2021. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among 2814 health care professionals across all three regions of Vietnam from October to November 2021. An online questionnaire, including the Work Motivation Scale, distributed by the snowball method to a subgroup of 939 respondents, investigated changes in working characteristics due to COVID-19, work motivation, and occupational intention. Results Only 37.2% of respondents committed to their current job and about 40% reported a decrease in their job satisfaction. The Work Motivation Scale scored the lowest in “financial motivation” and the highest in “perception of work value”. Participants who were in the north region, of younger age, unmarried, and who had a low level of adaptability to external work pressure, shorter experience, and less job satisfaction tended to be less motivated and commit-ted to their current job. Conclusions Intrinsic motivation has increased in importance during the pandemic. Therefore, policymakers should develop in-terventions that raise intrinsic, psychological motivation instead of only focusing on salary raises. Issues about intrinsic motivations of health care workers such as low adaptability to stress and pro-fessionalism in routine work should be prioritized during the pan-demic preparedness and control.