The challenges of health volunteers management in COVID19 pandemic in Iran.

PURPOSE: The use of volunteers is one of the approaches to capacity building, preparedness and the response of the health system in disasters. Appropriate management of volunteers during disasters and emergencies is essential. This study aimed to explain the challenges of volunteer management in the Pandemic COVID-19 in Iran. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: Qualitative research was conducted using the content analysis based on the Graneheim method. The participants' selection was done based on purposeful sampling and theoretical sampling until data saturation. Direct field observation and 26 interviews were applied to collect data. FINDINGS: Four categories and 15 sub-categories emerged to describe the challenges of volunteer management during the COVID-19 crisis including policymaking barriers (including legal barriers, insurance and support coverage and risk governance), managerial barriers (including planning, coordinating and organizing, training and awareness, command and leadership and information management and documentation), socio-cultural barriers (personal safety attitude and culture, attitudes and expectations of the community and perspectives on volunteers) and executive-operational barriers (monitoring and evaluation, cost and needs assessment). ORIGINALITY/VALUE: It is essential to increase managers', officials' and volunteers' perceptions of COVID19 risk through education and information. Preparing a database for volunteers' information, including non-governmental organization and governmental organization volunteers, planning for needs assessment, establishing a mechanism for recruiting volunteers and using their capacities and appropriate organizing, tracking and monitoring of volunteers can be among effective strategies.

The Prevalence of Generalized Anxiety Disorder Among Health Care Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Introduction: Health care workers, due to be involved in caring for COVID-19 patients may experience various psychological problems including anxiety disorders. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) among health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic by systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods: The PRISMA guideline was used for conducting this study. Related keywords were searched in credited resources including ISC, Magiran, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane, ProQuest, Science Direct, Google Scholar, and Embase to find the articles published on the prevalence of GAD among health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic from the first of January to the end of June 2020. Meta-analysis was conducted by the random effects model. Results: In this study, 553 articles were initially identified, from which 19 studies were finally included in the meta-analysis. The results showed that the prevalence of GAD in health care workers based on the GAD-7 and GAD-2 instruments were 32.04% (95% CI: 26.89-37.19, I 2 = 98.2%, p < 0.001) and 22.62% (95% CI: 9.01-36.24, I 2 = 97.7%, p < 0.001). The overall prevalence of GAD was obtained 30.5% (95% CI: 25.58-35.42, I 2 = 98.4%, p < 0.001). Conclusion: This study showed a relatively high GAD prevalence, as one of the fundamental psychological problems, among health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, health system managers should implement preventive strategies to protect health staff from contracting the virus and monitor them for psychological problems and provide them with supportive measures if necessary.