Exploring Challenges and Opportunities in Interprofessional Collaboration of Health Workers during COVID-19 Pandemic at the Public Health Center in Bantul Regency

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic is of special concern in all parts of the world, including Indonesia. The number of active cases also continues to increase in most provinces in Indonesia, especially in the Special Region of Yogyakarta. This condition requires health workers to collaborate well in suppressing and handling COVID-19 patients. AIM: The aims of this study were to find out how collaboration occurs between health workers in handling COVID-19. This study identifies opportunities and challenges for Interprofessional Collaboration (IPC) health workers at the Primary Health Center of Bantul Regency. METHODS: The design of this study was a cross-sectional study. We used the purposive sampling method to recruit participants. This study was followed by 200 participants who were health workers at the Primary Health Center in Bantul Regency. We used a questionnaire as the instrument. The questionnaire consists of four dimensions of IPC such as knowledge, collaboration, service, and the role of a pharmacist. The data obtained were statistically analyzed using Chi-square and Spearman. RESULTS: The result showed that IPC health worker at Health Primary Center of Bantul was categorized as good (45%). However, IPC at the Health Primary Center is still not optimal. There were top three obstacles in collaborating, namely, lack of time, perception of complicated bureaucracy, and lack of trust from health workers about their knowledge and skill.Based on spearman test p-value for age, gender, education level, years of service, occupation were 0.764; 0,732; 0.808; 0.189; 0.582; 0.746. This result showed that the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants did not significantly affect the IPC (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The main key in practicing IPC was building a good work team, good communication and relationship, responsibility for each other’s, keep learning from each other and being critical, and maintaining the ethics of each profession. Thus, effective and efficient collaboration will be established.