Health Care Workers Challenges during Coronavirus Outbreak: The Qualitative Study

Health care workers were one of the main groups under massive pressure without sufficient resources and equipment during Coronavirus outbreak. So, the aim of the present study was to explore and determine the challenges of health care workers encounter during serving patients who suffered coronavirus.

Methods and Materials:

 In this study, Qualitative-descriptive method was used. The statistical population of the study included all health care workers including physicians and nurses who worked in coronavirus parts of the hospitals of Qom city from the beginning of disease outbreak. eleven Health care workers by purposeful sampling were selected and using saturation criteria went through semi structured in depth interviews. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze data.

The findings included 9 themes(experiencing psychological distress and negative emotions, experiencing difficulty and work pressure, lack of using mental health experts and sufficient psychological skills, not being prepared to encounter disease, lack of sufficient knowledge, occupational conflict experience, and decrease of interpersonal relationship and Coronavirus stigma, disagreement and tension with family members, experiencing frustration and helplessness due to the nature of the disease) and 22 subthemes.

The results of this study indicated that health care workers had challenges with areas of emotions, interpersonal and family relationships, and working environments and job difficulties. For this purpose, it is necessary to use strategies such as using mental health professionals for health care workers and their families, creating adequate preparation before the outbreak in terms of equipment, personnel, necessary training about the disease and its process, skill training health care workers and making various incentives.