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Experience of Living with COVID-19: Personal Preparedness and Coping Mechanism Among Deployed Healthcare Workers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2022

Hendra Goh Open the ORCID record for Hendra Goh [Opens in a new window] ,
Gayathri Devi Nadarajan ,
Tess Lin Teo  and
Sungwon Yoon Open the ORCID record for Sungwon Yoon [Opens in a new window]
Hendra Goh
Affiliation:
Health Services and Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
Gayathri Devi Nadarajan
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore
Tess Lin Teo
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore
Sungwon Yoon*
Affiliation:
Health Services and Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore
*
Corresponding author: Sungwon Yoon, Email: sungwon.yoon@duke-nus.edu.sg.
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Abstract

Objective:

This study aimed to explore how deployed healthcare workers (HCWs) perceived personal preparedness for response, and their main avenues for coping to maintain resilience during the prolonged COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic.

Methods:

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 HCWs deployed to the frontline for an extended period to provide acute COVID-19 related care. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed thematically.

Results:

HCWs demonstrated heightened self-confidence and readiness to deal with public health emergencies owing to the ramped-up efforts in infrastructure for outbreak management and pre-emptive infectious disease training. Despite overall confidence, deployed HCWs had to adopt various coping mechanisms to sustain resilience during the prolonged pandemic. Main themes on coping centred around the value of team leaders and support from family members as an effective buffer for work-induced stress while institution-based counseling services and welfare were viewed as important for fostering the internal locus of control and wellbeing.

Conclusion:

Our findings suggest that strategies such as on-the-job training, continuous education and improved communication would be essential to maintain resilience of deployed HCWs. Considerations should be also given to the swift implementation of blended wellness support comprising digital and in-person counseling to sustain wellbeing and prepare for endemic COVID-19.

Keywords

COVID-19healthcare workersdeploymentpreparednesscoping mechanism
Type
Brief Report
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 16 , Issue 6 , December 2022 , pp. 2406 - 2408
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

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