ABSTRACT
The spread of COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 had significant impact on the functioning of the existing healthcare system and required fast adaption to new circumstances for continuing with daily practices. Community pharmacists shared responsibility of ensuring supply of medicines and medical devices, educating people on health related issues, providing pharmaceutical care etc. The aim of this study was to understand how the provision of community pharmacy services changed during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in spring of 2020 in Estonia. Qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted. Recorded interviews with community pharmacists (n = 21) and experts (n =10) were transcribed verbatim and a systematic text condensation method for textual content analysis was performed. The findings indicated that a number of changes took place in provision of community pharmacy services to assure continuity in providing high-quality pharmacy services in crisis, including addressing difficulties in the supply of medicines;at the same time, to acquire new knowledge for counselling health related topics and personal protective equipment, and to provide psychological support to people in stress. Pandemic had an impact on the content and structure of traditional community pharmacy services in Estonia. The need for expanded professional role of pharmacists was clearly expressed in an emergency situation.
ABSTRACT
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has posed many challenges to societies, individual healthcare systems and global public health. Manifestations of increasing health inequalities, social stigmatization and challenging ethical decision-making have been previously noticed. The aim of this article is to analyse the perceptions of frontline healthcare professionals regarding the potential impact of COVID-19 on the provision of healthcare services and the ethical challenges it may entail. Method: This research is a part of a larger research project which was conducted among frontline healthcare professionals in Estonia and used both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection. In this article, answers to specific open-ended questions from the questionnaire (n = 116) and in-depth interviews (n = 8) were analysed. For data analysis, inductive content analysis was used. The research was granted ethical approval.
ABSTRACT
Although relatively easy to overcome for young and healthy individuals, seasonal influenza is a disease with considerable health, social, and economic consequences for society, especially for higher-risk groups. Even though vaccination against influenza is the most effective tool to prevent it, vaccination rates remain rather low. Together with the promotion of neoliberal individual responsibility over one's health, vaccine hesitancy - a complex phenomenon indicating the lower uptake of vaccines compared to the accessibility of information and services - has risen among societies. In previous research, several barriers - for example, psychological, physical, contextual, and sociodemographic - have been identified as preventing influenza vaccine uptake among risk groups. We approach the topic by using the social constructionist theory regarding the meaning construction of illnesses on cultural, individual, and third-party level. The findings outline the importance of meaning construction on all these levels. It appears that culturally influenza has been seen as an inevitable infectious disease related to the northern climate. Due to that, influenza is not considered as a life-threatening disease that would need preventive actions, except some basic hygiene or usage of folk medicine tools (e.g., ginger and garlic). On an individual level, the meaning construction is based on individual experiences, both with the illness and the vaccine - in the case of negative experiences with vaccine, the perception of something useless or even harmful develops. In addition, it appears that people create their own strategies to rationalize rejection of vaccination for themselves. These involve considerations about belonging to the risk group or the possibility to manage daily activities in non-risky manner even when belonging to the risk group. On the third-party level, participants saw the potential of pharmacies to alleviate practical constraints (e.g., tight schedule, daily occupation, etc.). Different media channels are also important in mediating vaccination-related information, but the rationalization and selection of the channels vary widely. The context of the coronavirus changed the vaccination-related perception temporarily for a short term, indicating that fear-based special occasions do not entail a long-term shift in health behaviour as the development of health-related decisions and behaviour is also long-term. © 2021 Eesti Keele InstituutÂÂÂ. All rights reserved.