Experience of frontline medical workers in COVID-19 quarantine points: a qualitative study / 中华全科医师杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To study the experience of frontline medical workers in COVID-19 quarantine points.Methods:Purposive sampling method was employed and 12 frontline medical workers in COVID-19 points of Zhaoyuan City were selected for semi-structured and in-depth interview. Colaizzi′s seven-step analysis method was adopted to analyze and categorize the data.Results:The real experience of frontline medical workers in quarantine points were classified into five themes: professional mission and pride, inadequate initial response in dealing with public health emergencies (shortage of personal protective equipment,inadequate preparation of medical workers and imperfect settings of quarantine points), having some negative emotions (worrying about being infected and feeling fearful for family members), facing complex and diverse working difficulties (repugnance and diversified demands of people quarantined, heavy workload, discomfort from personal protective equipment and occupational exposure), and gaining support and appreciation (getting support from epidemic control and prevention departments as well as medical systems and winning appreciation from people quarantined).Conclusions:The frontline medical workers are lack of experience in dealing with public health emergencies and have some psychological and working pressure. Administrative department should further complete the emergency plan of centralized isolation medical observation, strengthen the contingency management of public health emergencies, attach importance to the mental health of medical workers, optimize management methods and establish flexible work schedules.