Personal Safety during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Realities and Perspectives of Healthcare Workers in Latin America

Abstract

Healthcare workers exposed to coronavirus (COVID-19) may not have adequate access to personal protective equipment (PPE), safety procedures, and diagnostic protocols. Our objective was to evaluate the reality and perceptions about personal safety among healthcare workers in Latin America. This is a cross-sectional, online survey-based study administered to 936 healthcare professionals in Latin America from 31 March 2020 to 4 April 2020. A 12-item structured questionnaire was developed. A total of 936 healthcare workers completed the online survey. Of them, 899 (95.1%) were physicians, 28 (2.9%) were nurses, and 18 (1.9%) were allied health professionals. Access to protective equipment was as follows: gel hand sanitizer (n = 889; 95%), disposable gloves (n = 853; 91.1%), disposable gowns (n = 630; 67.3%), disposable surgical masks (785; 83.9%), N95 masks (n = 516; 56.1%), and facial protective shields (n = 305; 32.6%). The vast majority (n = 707; 75.5%) had access to personal safety policies and procedures, and 699 (74.7%) participants had access to diagnostic algorithms. On a 1-to-10 Likert scale, the participants expressed limited human resources support (4.92 ± 0.2; mean ± SD), physical integrity protection in the workplace (5.5 ± 0.1; mean ± SD), and support from public health authorities (5.01 ± 0.12; mean ± SD). Healthcare workers in Latin America had limited access to essential PPE and support from healthcare authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Preparedness and Approaches of Healthcare Providers to Tackle the Transmission of Covid-19 among North Shewa Zone Hospitals, Amhara, Ethiopia, 2020.

“…Gloves 111(31%), facemasks 98(27.4%), goggles 57(15.9%), gowns/ apron 51(14.2%), and shoe 41(11.5%) PPE were available. The availability of PPE in north Shewa zone hospitals was much lower than a study conducted in Latin America which revealed that gloves (91.1%), gowns (67.3%), face masks (83.9%), and N95 masks (56.1%) (14). This might be due study time which was done early that health care providers could be conscious to use PPE and socioeconomic difference.…”

The Severity of Traumatic Stress Associated with COVID-19 Pandemic, Perception of Support, Sense of Security, and Sense of Meaning in Life among Nurses: Research Protocol and Preliminary Results from Poland

“…A sense of security during a pandemic is also enhanced by a well-prepared workplace, especially healthcare workers. According to the studies by Delegrado et al [ 55 ] conducted among medical staff in Latin America, HCWs had limited access to personal protective equipment, and health authorities support during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have affected their sense of security. Unfortunately, the authors of the study did not find studies evaluating the sense of security of medical personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic in the literature, so this is the first study to evaluate this issue.…”

Risk perception and Emotion evaluation of Health care workers varied during different periods of COVID-19: a repeated cross-sectional research

“…Koh et al [13] conducted a qualitative interview schedule and attained that suffering from the infectious diseases, such as, would signi cantly impact the nurses' risk perception. The latest study of Diego et al conducted in Latin American HCWs showed HCWs perceived limited access to protective equipment and supports, which indicated the organizational safety were also added to the epidemic-related risk for HCWs [14].…”