Mitigating staff shortages: Risk of permitting healthcare workers to return to work after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) exposure

Monsalud, Cherie Faith; Lind, Mary Frazier Greene; Hines, Carolyn; Schora, Donna; Grant, Jennifer; McElvania, Erin; Singh, Kamaljit

doi:10.1017/ice.2021.121

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Increasing absenteeism can also be attributed to staff infections and subsequent resultant shortages of staff. The challenge of staffing shortages is not unique to South Africa, but is a global phenomenon that has been reported widely in healthcare settings around the world (Anderson and Ruhs, 2010;Monsalud et al, 2021). As the pandemic progress, there are major concerns around the added stress on the workforce, leading to further shortages.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring primary healthcare practitioners’ experiences regarding the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Mchunu

Harris

Nxumalo

2022

Prim Health Care Res Dev

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Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread rapidly around the world since the initial outbreak in Wuhan, China. With the emergence of the Omicron variant, South Africa is presently the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Healthcare workers have been at the forefront of the pandemic in terms of screening, early detection and clinical management of suspected and confirmed COVID-19 cases. Since the beginning of the outbreak, little has been reported on how healthcare workers have experienced the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa, particularly within a low-income, rural primary care context. Methods: The purpose of the present qualitative study design was to explore primary healthcare practitioners’ experiences regarding the COVID-19 pandemic at two selected primary healthcare facilities within a low-income rural context in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Data were collected from a purposive sample of 15 participants, which consisted of nurses, physiotherapists, pharmacists, community caregivers, social workers and clinical associates. The participants were both men and women who were all above the age of 20. Data were collected through individual, in-depth face-to-face interviews using a semi-structured interview guide. Audio recordings were transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed manually by thematic analysis following Tech’s steps of data analysis. Results: Participants reported personal, occupational and community-related experiences related to the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. Personal experiences of COVID-19 yielded superordinate themes of psychological distress, self-stigma, disruption of the social norm, Epiphany and conflict of interest. Occupational experiences yielded superordinate themes of staff infections, COVID-19-related courtesy stigma, resource constraints and poor dissemination of information. Community-related experiences were related to struggles with societal issues, clinician-patient relations and COVID-19 mismanagement of patients. Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that primary healthcare practitioners’ experiences around COVID-19 are attributed to the catastrophic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic with the multitude of psychosocial consequences forming the essence of these experiences. Ensuring availability of reliable sources of information regarding the pandemic as well as psychosocial support could be valuable in helping healthcare workers cope with living and working during the pandemic.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring primary healthcare practitioners’ experiences regarding the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Mchunu

Harris

Nxumalo

2022

Prim Health Care Res Dev

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“…For example, in September 2021, the Lewis County hospital system in New York paused maternity services due to staffing shortages from mass resignations due to the vaccine mandate [267]. This is contrasted with shortages due to HCW illness [268]. Although mandates may be necessary to increase institutional vaccination rates, there will always be those who will still resist vaccination.…”

Section: Towards the Futurementioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 Vaccination Hesitancy among Healthcare Workers—A Review

2022

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The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated vaccine have highlighted vaccine hesitancy among healthcare workers (HCWs). Vaccine hesitancy among this group existed prior to the pandemic and particularly centered around influenza vaccination. Being a physician, having more advanced education, and previous vaccination habits are frequently associated with vaccine acceptance. The relationship between age and caring for patients on COVID-19 vaccination is unclear, with studies providing opposing results. Reasons for hesitancy include concerns about safety and efficacy, mistrust of government and institutions, waiting for more data, and feeling that personal rights are being infringed upon. Many of these reasons reflect previous attitudes about influenza vaccination as well as political beliefs and views of personal autonomy. Finally, several interventions to encourage vaccination have been studied, including education programs and non-monetary incentives with the most effective studies using a combination of methods.

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“…Table 1 shows the main characteristics of the 38 studies, including the basic publication information, study type, relevant effective monitoring measures in the COVID-19 context (syndromic surveillance, testing, contact tracing and exposure management), and summary results. With duplicates (repeated count), 11 of the included studies discussed syndromic surveillance measures [6,11,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]; 28 studies discussed approaches of testing [3,6,11,22,23,26,27,; 16 studies discussed measures of contact tracing and exposure management [6,11,17,18,[22][23][24][25][26]28,36,47,[50][51][52][53].…”

Section: Study Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Contacts presenting symptoms are considered at high risk and should be tested immediately, while those with low risk of exposure (i.e., presenting no symptoms and exposed for less than 15 min, at a distance of up to two meters while using proper PPE) are allowed to continue working, but may require daily health surveillance [22,23]. Additionally, at some hospitals, those having participated in aerosol-generating procedures for infected patients without proper PPE, regardless of presenting symptoms or not, are also classified in the high-risk group, and testing as well as quarantine are required [53].…”

Section: Contact Tracing and Exposure Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Effective Mechanism for the Early Detection and Containment of Healthcare Worker Infections in the Setting of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Meta-Synthesis

Mei

Xiu-yun

Chen

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed healthcare workers (HCWs) to serious infection risks. In this context, the proactive monitoring of HCWs is the first step toward reducing intrahospital transmissions and safeguarding the HCW population, as well as reflecting the preparedness and response of the healthcare system. As such, this study systematically reviewed the literature on evidence-based effective monitoring measures for HCWs during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was followed by a meta-synthesis to compile the key findings, thus, providing a clearer overall understanding of the subject. Effective monitoring measures of syndromic surveillance, testing, contact tracing, and exposure management are distilled and further integrated to create a whole-process monitoring workflow framework. Taken together, a mechanism for the early detection and containment of HCW infections is, thus, constituted, providing a composite set of practical recommendations to healthcare facility leadership and policy makers to reduce nosocomial transmission rates while maintaining adequate staff for medical services. In this regard, our study paves the way for future studies aimed at strengthening surveillance capacities and upgrading public health system resilience, in order to respond more efficiently to future pandemic threats.

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Mitigating staff shortages: Risk of permitting healthcare workers to return to work after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) exposure

Cited by 4 publications

References 3 publications

Exploring primary healthcare practitioners’ experiences regarding the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Exploring primary healthcare practitioners’ experiences regarding the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

COVID-19 Vaccination Hesitancy among Healthcare Workers—A Review

An Effective Mechanism for the Early Detection and Containment of Healthcare Worker Infections in the Setting of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Meta-Synthesis

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