Qualitative Study on Experiences of Responding to COVID-19 of Therapists in Long-term Care Hospitals

Stress, COVID‐19 related knowledge, attitude, and infection control performance of nurses at long‐term care hospitals

“…As COVID‐19 has had a society‐wide influence, people are flooded with real‐time information about COVID‐19 through various sources, such as public media (e.g., Internet, TV) and the KDCA guidelines. In particular, LTCH nurses are expected to have been motivated to acquire relevant knowledge because of their concerns about mass outbreaks within the facility and the responsibility of training nursing assistive personnel (Bae & Park, 2021; Kim & Lee, 2018).…”

“…Some LTCH workers demonstrated better infection prevention behaviors with increasing knowledge and a more positive attitude (Chang & Park, 2018); these workers faced psychological stress due to burdensome responsibility and pressure every time a mass outbreak was reported in an LTCH, as society scapegoated LTCHs as the culprit for the spread (Bae & Park, 2021). Such stress may curtail the workers' willingness for and actual performance of infection control (Bae et al, 2021; Choi, 2022), so it is important to examine the stress levels, impart knowledge through education, and promote positive attitudes among LTCH nurses to enhance their infection control performance.…”

“…However, as evidenced by the 2018 Korean National Survey of Healthcare-Related Infections, which showed that 12.7% of LTCHs in Korea did not respond to an infectious outbreak hospital system, LTCHs failed to recognize the importance of preventing and responding to infectious outbreaks (Ministry of Health and Welfare, 2022b), and lacked relevant education and training (Choi et al, 2021;Lee et al, 2015). Some LTCH workers demonstrated better infection prevention behaviors with increasing knowledge and a more positive attitude (Chang & Park, 2018); these workers faced psychological stress due to burdensome responsibility and pressure every time a mass outbreak was reported in an LTCH, as society scapegoated LTCHs as the culprit for the spread (Bae & Park, 2021). Such stress may curtail the workers' willingness for and actual performance of infection control Choi, 2022), so it is important to examine the stress levels, impart knowledge through education, and promote positive attitudes among LTCH nurses to enhance their infection control performance.…”

“…This was evidenced by a higher percentage of nurses from the LTCHs having received infection control education in the past year (83.1%) compared to those in the studies byYoon (2020) andChoi and Jung (2022).As COVID-19 has had a society-wide influence, people are flooded with real-time information about COVID-19 through various sources, such as public media (e.g., Internet, TV) and the KDCA guidelines. In particular, LTCH nurses are expected to have been motivated to acquire relevant knowledge because of their concerns about mass outbreaks within the facility and the responsibility of training nursing assistive personnel(Bae & Park, 2021;Kim & Lee, 2018).The mean COVID-19-related attitudes score was 4.24 ± 0.43 out of 5. The reasons for a more positive attitude toward COVID-19 compared to those reported in previous studies(Park & Lee, 2022a, 2022bZhang et al, 2020) may include the government's designation of LTCHs for infectious disease management, provision of facility and infection control training, and having the required manpower and infection control supplies in such hospitals, in addition to the continuous promotion of these hospitals through several channels.…”

Patient care experiences of long-term care hospitals nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic: A phenomenological study

“…또한 이라크 쿠르디스탄에서의 COVID-19 환자를 돌보는 경험에 관한 연구에서 간호사들은 두 려움, 스트레스, 불안과 고립을 경험하였으며 [15], 네델란드의 장기 요양시설 거주자들도 COVID-19에 의하여 직원의 절반 이 상이 동요, 우울증, 불안 및 과민성의 심각도 증가를 보고하는 [16] 등 국내 연구와 유사한 내용을 보고하였다. COVID-19 재 난상황에서 간호사의 기여와 희생에 관한 다양한 보도 및 보고 에도 불구하고 감염관리의 사각지대인 요양병원 간호사에 관한 보고는 요양병원 관리직 간호사의 코로나19 대응 경험을 다룬 연구 [17]와 요양병원 치료사의 COVID-19 대응 경험 연구 [18] 등 소수에 불과하여 요양병원 간호사들의 헌신과 노력, 그리고 인간적인 고뇌의 경험을 이해하기엔 제한적이다. Informed consent was obtained from the participants.…”