Nurses’ health beliefs about paper face masks in Japan, Australia and China: a qualitative descriptive study

Abstract

Aim To explore the health beliefs of clinical and academic nurses from Japan, Australia and China regarding wearing paper masks to protect themselves and others, and to identify differences in participants' health beliefs regarding masks. Background The correct use of face masks and consensus among health professionals across the globe is essential for containing pandemics, and nurses need to act according to policy to protect themselves, educate the public and preserve resources for frontline health workers. Paper masks are worn by health professionals and the general public to avoid the transmission of respiratory infections, such as COVID‐19, but there appear to be differences in health beliefs of nurses within and between countries regarding these. Methods This qualitative descriptive study used content analysis with a framework approach. Findings There were major differences in nurse participants’ beliefs between and within countries, including how nurses use paper masks and their understanding of their efficacy. In addition, there were cultural differences in the way that nurses use masks in their daily lives and nursing practice contexts. Conclusion Nurses from different working environments, countries and areas of practice hold a variety of health beliefs about mask wearing at the personal and professional level. Implications for nursing policy and health policy The COVID‐19 pandemic has sparked much discussion about the critical importance of masks for the safety of health professionals, and there has been considerable discussion and disagreement about health policies regarding mask use by the general public. Improper use of masks may have a role in creating mask shortages or transmitting infections. An evidence‐based global policy on mask use for respiratory illnesses for health professionals, including nurses, and the general public needs to be adopted and supported by a wide‐reaching education campaign.

What shapes people's willingness to wear a face mask at the beginning of a public health disaster? A qualitative study based on COVID-19 in China

“…It is a systematic and rigorous method widely used in qualitative research to extract themes and subthemes (underlying factors) from interviews e.g. [ 20 , 27 , 34 , 35 ]. Hence, this study employed content analysis to analyse the results of the interviews.…”

“…For qualitative research, Omura, Stone, Petrini and Cao [ 27 ] conducted a qualitative descriptive study to find out how clinical and academic nurses in Japan, Australia, and China feel about wearing face masks to protect themselves and others and to see whether there are any variations in their attitudes toward wearing masks. They found that nurses from various work contexts, nations, and areas of practice hold a variety of personal and professional health attitudes concerning mask use.…”

A qualitative study on a novel peer collaboration care programme during the first COVID‐19 outbreak: A SWOT analysis

“…These strategies can be difficult and time consuming to adhere to in practice. Previous studies (Atay & Cura, 2020;Houghton et al, 2020;Omura et al,2020) show barriers and facilitators among nurses for the correct use of PPE, and adherence to safety protocols. Multiple barriers exist such as shortage of PPE, lack of training, failure to update safety protocols, lack of staffing, physical injury from PPE, lack of trust among superiors, beliefs and stereotypes.…”

Exploring the facilitating and obstructing factors of using virtual reality for 5S training: An exploratory qualitative study from students' perspectives in an industrial engineering undergraduate course

“…More specifically, the idea of content analysis is to count the similar keywords or content of the collected data, extract the point of view, and label it [14,23]. Content analysis is a systematic and rigorous approach widely used in qualitative research to elicit themes and subthemes (underlying factors) from qualitative opinions [e.g., 3,26,34,52,56]. Hence, this study adopted the content analysis method to analyse students' qualitative opinions.…”