Health Care Workers’ Experiences of Calling-for-help When Taking Care of Critically Ill Patients in Hospitals in Tanzania and Kenya

Abstract

Background When caring for critically ill patients, health workers often need to ‘call-for-help’ to get assistance from colleagues in the hospital. Systems are required to facilitate calling-for-help and enable the timely provision of care for critically ill patients. Evidence around calling-for-help systems is mostly from high income countries but the state of calling-for-help in hospitals in Tanzania and Kenya has not been formally studied. This study aims to describe health workers’ experiences about calling-for-help when taking care of critically ill patients in hospitals in Tanzania and Kenya. Methods Ten hospitals across Kenya and Tanzania were visited and in-depth interviews conducted with 30 health workers who had experience of caring for critically ill patients. The interviews were transcribed, translated and the data thematically analyzed. Results The study identified three thematic areas concerning the systems for calling-for-help when taking care of critically ill patients: 1) there are weak structures for calling-for-help; 2) The calling-for-help processes are innovative and improvised; and 3) the help that is provided is not as requested. Conclusion Calling-for-help when taking care of a critically ill patient is a necessary life-saving part of care, but health workers in Tanzanian and Kenyan hospitals experience a range of significant challenges. Hospitals have weak structures, processes for calling-for-help are improvised and help that is provided is not as requested. These challenges likely cause delays and decrease the quality of care, potentially resulting in unnecessary mortality and morbidity.