Healthcare workers’ experiences in caring for critically ill COVID-19 patients at a tertiary hospital in Malawi

Abstract

IntroductionThe coronavirus pandemic overwhelmed the healthcare landscape, placing a strain on healthcare workers worldwide. In addition todirectly causing the deaths of people, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted critical health services in developing countries. The studyaimed to explore the experiences of healthcare workers who cared for critically ill COVID-19 patients at a tertiary hospital in Malawi.MethodsA qualitative descriptive design was used. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews with doctors, clinical officers, nurses, andallied staff (n=25) who were involved in the care of critically ill COVID-19 patients at the hospital’s COVID-19 treatment centres duringthe first and second waves of the pandemic in Malawi. The interviews were conducted in English, audiotaped, and later transcribedverbatim. Conventional content analysis was used to analyse the data following the steps proposed by Hsieh and Shannon1.ResultsThe overall experience of the health workers was negative. However, delivering care to critically ill COVID-19 patients was associatedwith positive and negative experiences. The positive experience was a result of teamwork among staff and support from hospital authoritiesand the community. Negative experiences, on the other hand, were attributed to a lack of knowledge and skills in managing critically illCOVID-19 patients, a lack of resources, and abuse by some patients and members of the community. Furthermore, there was fear ofcontracting the virus from patients and fellow health workers while providing care.ConclusionThe findings point to the need for adequate preparedness within the health sector to support and protect the healthcare workers andindividuals they look after. There is a need for disease awareness strategies for health workers and the general public for future pandemics.