Lived experience of Jordanian front-line healthcare workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study

Core stories of physicians on a Swiss internal medicine ward during the first COVID-19 wave: a qualitative exploration

INTRODUCTION

The first COVID-19 wave (2020), W1, will remain extraordinary due to its novelty and the uncertainty on how to handle the pandemic. To understand what physicians went through, we collected narratives of frontline physicians working in a Swiss university hospital during W1.

METHODS

Physicians in the Division of Internal Medicine of Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) were invited to send anonymous narratives to an online platform, between 28 April and 30 June 2020. The analysed material consisted of 13 written texts and one audio record. They were examined by means of a narrative analysis based on a holistic content approach, attempting to identify narrative highlights, referred to as foci, in the texts.

RESULTS

Five main foci were identified: danger and threats, acquisition of knowledge and practices, adaptation to a changing context, commitment to the profession, and sense of belonging to the medical staff. In physicians' narratives, danger designated a variety of rather negative feelings and emotions, whereas threats were experienced as being dangerous for others, but also for oneself. The acquisition of knowledge and practices focus referred to the different types of acquisition that took place during W1. The narratives that focused on adaptation reflected how physicians coped with W1 and private or professional upheavals. COVID-19 W1 contributed to revealing a natural commitment (or not) of physicians towards the profession and patients, accompanied by the concern of offering the best possible care to all. Lastly, sense of belonging referred to the team and its reconfiguration during W1.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study deepens the understanding of how physicians experienced the pandemic both in their professional and personal settings. It offers insights into how they prepared and reacted to a pandemic. The foci reflect topics that are inherent to a physician's profession, whatever the context. During a pandemic, these foundational elements are particularly challenged. Strikingly, these topics are not studied in medical school, thus raising the general question of how students are prepared for the medical profession.

Experiences of Spanish out-of-hospital emergency workers with high levels of depression during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic had a major psychological impact on health care workers (HCWs). This study was embedded in a larger quantitative study on the mental health care of out-of-hospital HCWs in Spain. To better understand this, a qualitative study was conducted to explore the experiences, coping strategies, and influencing factors of out-of-hospital HCWs who scored high (> 25 points) on the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) in a previous quantitative mental health study.

METHODS

A qualitative study was conducted using six in-depth interviews with individuals who scored high on the depression scale and agreed to be contacted by email between May and June 2021, using the phenomenological approach. The data were analysed using Brawn and Clare's method.

RESULTS

The main results findings related to four themes. The emotional impact of assuming a professional role with high self-demands and responsibilities; Factors influencing the development of negative emotions such as the cruelty of the pandemic, the helplessness in relation to health management and policy, the changing role of the professional and the relationship with society; Personal protection through coping strategies to manage negative emotions such as support from colleagues and family; Good practices for the future looking for different management strategies that can influence individuals and their personal, professional, and social relationships.

CONCLUSION

The strong impact of the circumstances experienced points to the need to develop psychological support programmes that can protect people's mental health from depression during a crisis and improve the relationship between workers and their managers.

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers under the "Ten New Guidelines" in Taizhou, China

Purpose

We explored the influence of the "Ten new guidelines" on healthcare workers' preparedness, work impact, personal life impact, concerns, and support in Taizhou, China.

Methods

A hospital-based self-administered online survey was conducted to investigate the levels of COVID-19 related experience among healthcare workers in December 2022. In total, 472 out of 2080 healthcare workers (22.7 % response rate) completed the questionnaires with valid responses. Stepwise linear regression was used to investigate the independence of factors associated with preparedness, work impact, personal life impact, concerns, and support.

Results

The results revealed that working position (p < 0.001), pressure (p = 0.005), and negative affect (p < 0.001) were significantly associated with preparedness. Working position (p = 0.015), number of children (p = 0.040), working years (p = 0.019), COVID-19 risk perception (p < 0.001), work overload (p < 0.001), and negative affect (p < 0.001) were significantly associated with work impact. In addition, COVID-19 risk perception (p < 0.001), work overload (p < 0.001), pressure (p = 0.002), history of COVID-19 infection (p = 0.008), and awareness of possible infectious time (p = 0.031) were significantly associated with personal life impact. COVID-19 risk perception (p < 0.001), negative affect (p < 0.001), and work overload (p = 0.020) were significantly associated with concerns. Sex (p = 0.020) and negative affect (p = 0.016) were significantly associated with support.

Conclusion

Negative affect was the most significant factor associated with COVID-19 related questions among healthcare workers under "Ten new guidelines" during COVID-19 pandemic.