Assessing Public Health Department Employees' Willingness to Report to Work During an Influenza Pandemic

Abstract

Nearly half of public health department employees are unwilling to report to work during the peak of an influenza pandemic when the public health response will be a vital component of pandemic containment and mitigation. In light of the current worldwide spread of novel influenza A (H1N1), there is an urgent need to better inform public health workers about their roles in pandemic response and to ensure that personal safety is a top priority.

Predictors of Nurses’ Intentions to Work During the 2009 Influenza A (H1N1) Pandemic

“…13,19,20 This study supports those findings. We found that when given hypothetical situations in which colleagues were being placed in quarantine or were dying of the flu, significantly fewer respondents reported a willingness to work.…”

“…Many studies have found that concerns about the adequacy of PPE affect willingness to work, 5,8,11,12,16,19,20,23,[25][26][27][28] and we found this to be one of the most powerful influences as well. While respondents reported being more likely to work if given adequate PPE (gown, gloves, and N-95 mask; or gloves and N-95 mask), some reported that they wouldn't work even with full PPE.…”

Factors Associated with the Willingness of Health Care Personnel to Work During an Influenza Public Health Emergency: An Integrative Review

“…2009 Basta 32 72.6% of respondents considered family health and safety to be their greatest concern during an influenza pandemic. 92.3% of respondents were willing to work in the lowest risk scenario as compared with 56.2% in the highest risk scenario.…”

“…32 Past Experience with an Influenza Emergency-Tam et al reported that nurses who had previously worked during an influenza public health emergency were less likely to avoid influenza patients and to change their jobs. 23 Tzeng also found that nurses in the post-SARS group were more willing to provide care for patients with SARS than were those in the during-SARS group.…”

Healthcare providers: will they come to work during an influenza pandemic?

“…Fifteen studies -Basta et al [ [43], and Tippett et al [44] -examined willingness to report to work exclusively in an influenza pandemic but scenarios varied dramatically from study to study. For example, Basta et al [31] examined both early and peak pandemic duties to assess willingness to report to work contingent on duties requiring direct face to face contact with infected patients. Peak pandemic with high risk duties of direct face-to-face contacted produced a substantially lower willingness to report to work of 56.2%.…”