Promoting workplace retention during global crises: An international survey of the preventive role of psychological support among victims of social discrimination in long-term care facilities

•Promoting healthcare professionals’ (HCPs) retention at the workplace is essential to ensure high-quality care, particularly during global healthcare crises and in high-risk settings, such as long-term care facilities for older people.•Approximately 4 out of every 10 long-term care facilities’ HCPs encountered at least one instance of social discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic.•HCPs who experienced social discrimination were less likely to intend to stay in their current workplace.•Psychological support could avert the negative impact of discrimination on the intention to stay, underscoring the importance of psychological support as an effective strategy to retain and support HCPs during times of crisis. This international cross-sectional survey examined the potential role of organizational psychological support in mitigating the association between experiencing social discrimination against long-term care (LTC) facilities’ healthcare professionals (HCPs) and their intention to stay in the current workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants included a convenience sample of 2,143 HCPs (nurses [21.5 %], nurse aids or residential care workers [40.1 %], social workers [12.1 %], and others [26.4 %]) working at 223 LTC facilities in 13 countries/regions. About 37.5 % of the participants reported experiencing social discrimination, and the percentage ranged from 15.3 % to 77.9 % across countries/regions. Controlling for socio-demographic and work-related variables, experiencing social discrimination was significantly associated with a lower intention to stay, whereas receiving psychological support showed a statistically significant positive association (p-value=0.015 and