Barriers and enablers experienced by health care workers in swabbing for COVID-19 in Papua New Guinea: A multi-methods cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objective We aimed to identify the barriers and enablers Papua New Guinean (PNG) Health Care Workers (HCWs) experienced in swabbing for COVID-19. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional multi-methods study; a qualitative scoping exercise and a telephone survey. The target population was COVID-19 trained HCWs from all provinces of PNG. A descriptive analysis of survey responses was conducted alongside a rapid qualitative analysis of interviews and open-ended survey questions. Results Four key thematic areas were identified; human resources, logistics, HCW attitudes and community attitudes. The survey response rate was 70.3% (407/579). Commonly reported barriers to COVID-19 swabbing were insufficient staff trained (74.0%, n = 301), inadequate staffing in general (64.9 %, n = 264), insufficient supply of personal protective equipment (PPE, 60.9%, n = 248) and no cold chain to store swabs (57.5%, n = 234). Commonly reported enablers to swabbing were increasing community awareness and risk communication (80.8 %, n = 329), consistent and sufficient supplies of PPE (67.8 %, n = 276), increasing surge workforce (63.9 %, n = 260) and having a fridge to store swabs (59.7 %, n = 243). Conclusions A comprehensive community and HCWs engagement strategy in combination with innovations to improve supply chain are needed to increase COVID-19 swabbing in Papua New Guinea to reach national testing targets.

Genomic characterisation reveals a dominant lineage of SARS-CoV-2 in Papua New Guinea

“…This dataset provides a significant amount of new genomic data in an under-sampled region ( Chong et al. 2020 ) where attempts at representative sequencing have been hampered by resource and logistical issues ( Kabuni 2020 ; Smaghi et al. 2021 ).…”

“…The geographical spread of the population creates significant logistical challenges for diagnostic testing and epidemiological investigation to monitor the introduction and transmission of lineages, and surveillance of disease trends over time. Access to diagnostic testing has been variable across the country and hampered by staffing and logistical issues ( Smaghi et al. 2021 ), impacting the ability to monitor and rapidly implement public health measures to reduce the expansion of disease spread.…”

Use of Interviewer-Administered Telephone Surveys during Infectious Disease Outbreaks, Epidemics, and Pandemics: A Scoping Review

“…RDD is a form of probability sampling by randomly choosing phone numbers [19]. In several included studies, SMS was used to contact potential informants [20][21][22][23][24]. Knowledge sharing seems practical for strategizing and running IATS in a novel, complex circumstance, notably in LMICs where there are individuals with several cell phone subscriptions [9,25].…”

Sharing of best practices from an emergency medical team deployment in Papua New Guinea: Piloting a community engagement workshop targeting COVID-19 vaccine uptake

“…For instance, the PNG National Control Centre, with the World Health Organization (WHO), have trained HCWs across PNG on clinical practices and infection prevention and control measures but not on health promotion interventions and community engagement programmes. 7 Emergency medical teams (EMTs) are groups of medical professionals, such as physicians, nurses, paramedics, support staff, and logisticians, who provide care to those affected by emergencies or natural disasters. They come from governments, charities/ nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the military, civil protection, international humanitarian networks, including the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), United Nations contracted teams and the private-for-pro t sector.…”