Healthcare Workers’ Experiences of Working on the Frontline and Views About Support During COVID-19 and Previous Pandemics: A Systematic Review and Qualitative Meta-Synthesis 

Abstract

Background: Healthcare workers across the world have risen to the demands of treating COVID-19 patients, potentially at significant cost to their own health and wellbeing. There has been increasing recognition of the potential mental health impact of COVID-19 on frontline workers and calls to provide psychosocial support for them. However, little attention has so far been paid to understanding the impact of working on a pandemic from healthcare workers’ own perspectives or what their views are about support. Methods: We searched key healthcare databases (Medline, PsychINFO and PubMed), reviewed relevant grey literature, screened pre-print servers and hand searched reference lists of key texts for all published accounts of healthcare workers’ experiences of working on the frontline and views about support during COVID-19 and previous pandemics/epidemics. Final searches took place on September 28, 2020. We conducted a meta-synthesis of all qualitative results to synthesise findings and develop an overarching set of themes and sub-themes which captured the experiences and views of frontline healthcare workers across the studies. Results: This review identified 46 qualitative studies which explored healthcare workers’ experiences and views from pandemics or epidemics including and prior to COVID-19. Meta-synthesis derived eight key themes which largely transcended temporal and geographical boundaries. Participants across all the studies were deeply concerned about their own and/or others’ physical safety. This was greatest in the early phases of pandemics and exacerbated by inadequate PPE, insufficient resources, and inconsistent information. Workers struggled with high workloads and long shifts and desired adequate rest and recovery. Many experienced stigma. Healthcare workers’ relationships with families, colleagues, organisations, media and the wider public were complicated and nuanced and could be experienced concomitantly as sources of support but also sources of stress. Conclusions: The experiences of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic are not unprecedented; the themes that arose from previous pandemics and epidemics were remarkably resonant with what we are hearing about the impact of COVID-19 globally today. We have an opportunity to learn from the lessons of these previous crises, mitigate the negative mental health impact of COVID-19 and support the longer-term wellbeing of the healthcare workforce worldwide.

What support do frontline workers want? A qualitative study of health and social care workers’ experiences and views of psychosocial support during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…The results of this study lend support to emerging evidence that psychosocial support may be most acceptable and effective when delivered in a phase-based way [ 10 ], although this warrants evaluation. Mental health awareness training, health promotion and ill-health prevention are likely to be most helpful in advance of crises with practical resources, peer support and informal psychological support most valued at the peak.…”

“…So far, there has been very little qualitative research exploring frontline workers own experiences and views of working on COVID-19. What qualitative research has been published so far has tended to be on small samples, limited to doctors and nurses, and of poor to moderate quality [ 10 ]. No research to date has considered health and social care workers’ own opinions about psychosocial support.…”

Experiences of intensive care unit nurses working with COVID-19 patients: A systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative studies

“…In addition, the results of a meta-analysis study by Galanis et al showed that the level of burnout in nurses was high during the COVID-19 pandemic (58). Furthermore, a systematic review suggested that HCWs during the COVID-19 pandemic experienced a heavy workload, due to increased working hours, staff shortages, increased paperwork, and the use of PPE (64). Therefore, the need to decrease ICU nurses' burnout is evident.…”

Work from home study: mental workload, gender, and calorie needs

“…Otherwise, the mental workloads increased during the pandemic with the period of regular work. Workers across the world (students, medical staff, officials, service personnel, teachers, business manager, freelance, other jobs) give some perspectives that COVID-19 impact such as adverse mental health, increase levels of anxiety and quality of life rather than regular work because of the unprecedented pandemic [28], [29].…”

“…Besides, to be seen from calorie intake from both males and females, more than 70% of workers have excess calories when working at home. Based on age classification such as young adult (18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35) and middle age (36-55) [30], there are 95% of young adult males dan 56% middleage male has calories excess.…”