Learning from healthcare workers’ experiences with personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic in Aotearoa/New Zealand: a thematic analysis and framework for future practice
Objectives Safety and welfare are critical as pandemic-related demands on the healthcare workforce continue. Access to personal protective equipment (PPE) has been a central concern of healthcare workers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Against the backdrop of an already strained healthcare system,...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMJ Publishing Group
2022-10-01
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| Series: | BMJ Open |
| Online Access: | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/10/e061413.full |
| _version_ | 1798030589049176064 |
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| author | Yvonne C Anderson Cameron C Grant Cervantée E K Wild José G B Derraik Hailey Wells Nicolene Coetzee Trudy A Sullivan |
| author_facet | Yvonne C Anderson Cameron C Grant Cervantée E K Wild José G B Derraik Hailey Wells Nicolene Coetzee Trudy A Sullivan |
| author_sort | Yvonne C Anderson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Objectives Safety and welfare are critical as pandemic-related demands on the healthcare workforce continue. Access to personal protective equipment (PPE) has been a central concern of healthcare workers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Against the backdrop of an already strained healthcare system, our study aimed to explore the experiences of healthcare workers with PPE during the first COVID-19 surge (February–June 2020) in Aotearoa/New Zealand (NZ). We also aimed to use these findings to present a strengths-based framework for supporting healthcare workers moving forward.Design Web-based, anonymous survey including qualitative open-text questions. Questions were both closed and open text, and recruitment was multimodal. We undertook inductive thematic analysis of the dataset as a whole to explore prominent values related to healthcare workers’ experiences.Setting October–November 2020 in New Zealand.Participants 1411 healthcare workers who used PPE during surge one of the COVID-19 pandemic.Results We identified four interactive values as central to healthcare workers’ experiences: transparency, trust, safety and respect. When healthcare workers cited positive experiences, trust and safety were perceived as present, with a sense of inclusion in the process of stock allocation and effective communication with managers. When trust was low, with concerns over personal safety, poor communication and lack of transparency resulted in perceived lack of respect and distress among respondents. Our proposed framework presents key recommendations to support the health workforce in terms of communication relating to PPE supply and distribution built on those four values.Conclusions Healthcare worker experiences with PPE access has been likened to ‘the canary in the coalmine’ for existing health system challenges that have been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The four key values identified could be used to improve healthcare worker experience in the future. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T19:42:43Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5d2a64067de64fad824a95a84f807033 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2044-6055 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T19:42:43Z |
| publishDate | 2022-10-01 |
| publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMJ Open |
| spelling | doaj.art-5d2a64067de64fad824a95a84f8070332022-12-22T04:06:36ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Open2044-60552022-10-01121010.1136/bmjopen-2022-061413Learning from healthcare workers’ experiences with personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic in Aotearoa/New Zealand: a thematic analysis and framework for future practiceYvonne C Anderson0Cameron C Grant1Cervantée E K Wild2José G B Derraik3Hailey Wells4Nicolene Coetzee5Trudy A Sullivan6Department of Paediatrics: Child and Youth Health, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New ZealandDepartment of Paediatrics: Child and Youth Health, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New ZealandDepartment of Paediatrics: Child and Youth Health, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New ZealandDepartment of Paediatrics: Child and Youth Health, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New ZealandDepartment of Paediatrics: Child and Youth Health, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New ZealandDepartment of Paediatrics: Child and Youth Health, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New ZealandDepartment of Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin, New ZealandObjectives Safety and welfare are critical as pandemic-related demands on the healthcare workforce continue. Access to personal protective equipment (PPE) has been a central concern of healthcare workers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Against the backdrop of an already strained healthcare system, our study aimed to explore the experiences of healthcare workers with PPE during the first COVID-19 surge (February–June 2020) in Aotearoa/New Zealand (NZ). We also aimed to use these findings to present a strengths-based framework for supporting healthcare workers moving forward.Design Web-based, anonymous survey including qualitative open-text questions. Questions were both closed and open text, and recruitment was multimodal. We undertook inductive thematic analysis of the dataset as a whole to explore prominent values related to healthcare workers’ experiences.Setting October–November 2020 in New Zealand.Participants 1411 healthcare workers who used PPE during surge one of the COVID-19 pandemic.Results We identified four interactive values as central to healthcare workers’ experiences: transparency, trust, safety and respect. When healthcare workers cited positive experiences, trust and safety were perceived as present, with a sense of inclusion in the process of stock allocation and effective communication with managers. When trust was low, with concerns over personal safety, poor communication and lack of transparency resulted in perceived lack of respect and distress among respondents. Our proposed framework presents key recommendations to support the health workforce in terms of communication relating to PPE supply and distribution built on those four values.Conclusions Healthcare worker experiences with PPE access has been likened to ‘the canary in the coalmine’ for existing health system challenges that have been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The four key values identified could be used to improve healthcare worker experience in the future.https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/10/e061413.full |
| spellingShingle | Yvonne C Anderson Cameron C Grant Cervantée E K Wild José G B Derraik Hailey Wells Nicolene Coetzee Trudy A Sullivan Learning from healthcare workers’ experiences with personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic in Aotearoa/New Zealand: a thematic analysis and framework for future practice BMJ Open |
| title | Learning from healthcare workers’ experiences with personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic in Aotearoa/New Zealand: a thematic analysis and framework for future practice |
| title_full | Learning from healthcare workers’ experiences with personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic in Aotearoa/New Zealand: a thematic analysis and framework for future practice |
| title_fullStr | Learning from healthcare workers’ experiences with personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic in Aotearoa/New Zealand: a thematic analysis and framework for future practice |
| title_full_unstemmed | Learning from healthcare workers’ experiences with personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic in Aotearoa/New Zealand: a thematic analysis and framework for future practice |
| title_short | Learning from healthcare workers’ experiences with personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic in Aotearoa/New Zealand: a thematic analysis and framework for future practice |
| title_sort | learning from healthcare workers experiences with personal protective equipment during the covid 19 pandemic in aotearoa new zealand a thematic analysis and framework for future practice |
| url | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/10/e061413.full |
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