Sharing uncertainty: Comparing patient narratives of help-seeking in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic across the UK, USA, Brazil, Germany and Spain
The early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic generated profound global uncertainty that disrupted health systems. This paper examines uncertainty about Covid-19 from the perspective of patients who sought clinical help in Spain, the UK, the USA, Brazil and Germany in 2020. We conduct a narrative analys...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2023-12-01
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| Series: | SSM: Qualitative Research in Health |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667321523000902 |
| _version_ | 1797400782309425152 |
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| author | Anna Dowrick Jane Alice Evered Alicia Navarro Dias de Souza Anne Thier Maria Inês Gandolfo Conceição Christine Holmberg Vinita Mahtani-Chugani |
| author_facet | Anna Dowrick Jane Alice Evered Alicia Navarro Dias de Souza Anne Thier Maria Inês Gandolfo Conceição Christine Holmberg Vinita Mahtani-Chugani |
| author_sort | Anna Dowrick |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic generated profound global uncertainty that disrupted health systems. This paper examines uncertainty about Covid-19 from the perspective of patients who sought clinical help in Spain, the UK, the USA, Brazil and Germany in 2020. We conduct a narrative analysis to explore how patients sought to involve health care teams in addressing the ontological and epistemological uncertainties of Covid illness. Patients wanted clinical support to make sense of Covid as a novel illness and interpret their journey to recovery. Access to this support varied. Help-seeking was enabled when health services perceived patient needs as legitimate, alongside an infrastructure that enabled them access to care despite health system strain. In Brazil and Spain, candidacy for support in the early stages of illness was unquestioned, whereas in Germany, the UK and USA patients had to convince health professionals to support them. Where patients did access clinical support, they valued clinicians sharing the work of developing knowledge that would address epistemological uncertainty about Covid. Patients valued clinicians’ potential to acquire relevant expertise, rather than what they knew about Covid in a given encounter. Comparing experiences across different national settings demonstrates that patients wanted health systems to engage in the uncertainty of the pandemic through being accessible and present during novel illness experiences, sharing responsibility for learning more, and having a curiosity about the unknown. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T02:00:30Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-370e727c4df84c379428ba55ad48886e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2667-3215 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T02:00:30Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | SSM: Qualitative Research in Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-370e727c4df84c379428ba55ad48886e2023-12-08T04:47:05ZengElsevierSSM: Qualitative Research in Health2667-32152023-12-014100306Sharing uncertainty: Comparing patient narratives of help-seeking in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic across the UK, USA, Brazil, Germany and SpainAnna Dowrick0Jane Alice Evered1Alicia Navarro Dias de Souza2Anne Thier3Maria Inês Gandolfo Conceição4Christine Holmberg5Vinita Mahtani-Chugani6University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Corresponding author. Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Science, Radcliffe Primary Care Building, Woodstock Road, OX2 6GG, UK.University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USAFaculty of Medicine, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, BrazilInstitute of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, Medical School Brandenburg Theodor Fontane (MHB), Brandenburg an der Havel, GermanyInstitute of Psychology, University of Brasília, BrazilInstitute of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, Medical School Brandenburg Theodor Fontane (MHB), Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany; Faculty of Health Sciences Brandenburg, Joint Faculty of the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus - Senftenberg, The University of Potsdam and the Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane, Potsdam, GermanyResearch Unit University Hospital Nuestra Señora de Candelaria and Primary Care Management, Ctra. Gral. Del Rosario, 145, 38010, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, SpainThe early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic generated profound global uncertainty that disrupted health systems. This paper examines uncertainty about Covid-19 from the perspective of patients who sought clinical help in Spain, the UK, the USA, Brazil and Germany in 2020. We conduct a narrative analysis to explore how patients sought to involve health care teams in addressing the ontological and epistemological uncertainties of Covid illness. Patients wanted clinical support to make sense of Covid as a novel illness and interpret their journey to recovery. Access to this support varied. Help-seeking was enabled when health services perceived patient needs as legitimate, alongside an infrastructure that enabled them access to care despite health system strain. In Brazil and Spain, candidacy for support in the early stages of illness was unquestioned, whereas in Germany, the UK and USA patients had to convince health professionals to support them. Where patients did access clinical support, they valued clinicians sharing the work of developing knowledge that would address epistemological uncertainty about Covid. Patients valued clinicians’ potential to acquire relevant expertise, rather than what they knew about Covid in a given encounter. Comparing experiences across different national settings demonstrates that patients wanted health systems to engage in the uncertainty of the pandemic through being accessible and present during novel illness experiences, sharing responsibility for learning more, and having a curiosity about the unknown.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667321523000902Covid-19Cross-country comparisonUncertaintypandemicsQualitative |
| spellingShingle | Anna Dowrick Jane Alice Evered Alicia Navarro Dias de Souza Anne Thier Maria Inês Gandolfo Conceição Christine Holmberg Vinita Mahtani-Chugani Sharing uncertainty: Comparing patient narratives of help-seeking in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic across the UK, USA, Brazil, Germany and Spain SSM: Qualitative Research in Health Covid-19 Cross-country comparison Uncertainty pandemics Qualitative |
| title | Sharing uncertainty: Comparing patient narratives of help-seeking in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic across the UK, USA, Brazil, Germany and Spain |
| title_full | Sharing uncertainty: Comparing patient narratives of help-seeking in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic across the UK, USA, Brazil, Germany and Spain |
| title_fullStr | Sharing uncertainty: Comparing patient narratives of help-seeking in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic across the UK, USA, Brazil, Germany and Spain |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sharing uncertainty: Comparing patient narratives of help-seeking in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic across the UK, USA, Brazil, Germany and Spain |
| title_short | Sharing uncertainty: Comparing patient narratives of help-seeking in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic across the UK, USA, Brazil, Germany and Spain |
| title_sort | sharing uncertainty comparing patient narratives of help seeking in the first year of the covid 19 pandemic across the uk usa brazil germany and spain |
| topic | Covid-19 Cross-country comparison Uncertainty pandemics Qualitative |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667321523000902 |
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