Exploring the Experiences of Healthcare Workers in Treating Psychiatric COVID 19 Positive Patients: In the Case of Eka Kotebe General Hospital, COVID 19 Treatment Center, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2022-07-01
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is now a major public health emergency in the world. Mental health and psychosocial support professionals as key members of the COVID-19 patient care team were experienced many challenges caused by the disease. Exploring the experiences of healthcare workers as patient supporters and caregivers can play an important role in improving the quality of care for patients with COVID-19 disease and mental illness. This study explored the experiences of healthcare workers in treating psychiatric COVID-19 positive patients. The study followed a qualitative research approach, employing exploratory case study design. Purposive sampling was used to select study participants. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussion, and direct observation. The collected data were analyzed using the qualitative thematic analysis procedure. The major findings of the research were, physical health problems, injury, stress, anxiety, lack of personal and professional needs, difficulty in social interaction, feeling of gratitude and social support as a pleasant social experience, feeling of affection and compassionate love as a positive psychological experience, and solving the root cause of the problem and stress mitigating mechanisms were their coping strategies. Others like, reliance on God, doing physical exercises, eating balanced diet, reading books, throwing away of the negative thoughts they have were reported coping mechanisms. As a conclusion, and as the main findings portrayed in this study suggested that the healthcare workers who participated in this study pass through many personal and professional challenges, some positive and negative feelings, physical, psychosocial experiences and the copings they used as an experience.
Description
Keywords
healthcare workers, psychiatric COVID 19