The COVID-19 pandemic: Reorganisation of health services and coping of health care workers in primary healthcare

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the reorganisation of healthcare services, and the implementation of contingency plans impacted Primary Health Care (PHC) workers' daily demands. The training and support of health workers staff, its clinical, psychological and social support are additional challenges. Research question: How have PHC services responded to the pandemic and how has this impacted PHC workers regarding anxiety levels? Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey with a convenience sample of Primary Care Services workers from 7 European countries (Portugal, Spain, Bosnia, Italy, Turkey, Ukraine and France) using an online questionnaire. Ethical aspects were guaranteed. We collected information on gender, age, professional group, perceived support, access to personal protective equipment (PPE), overall pressure felt by professionals and their anxiety levels by March 2020 and May 2021. The association between each variable and anxiety were estimated through multivariate logistic regression. Result(s): Our sample comprised 1045 PHC workers (73.8% female, mean age 44.8 years;49.6% doctors). Almost 70% of participants claimed to monitor suspected COVID-19 patients and 66.5% reported a risk management protocol was in place. In March 2020, 54% of participants reported little/no PPEs availability, whereas in May 2021 76% stated PPEs were available/very available. About 65% of the participants feel high/extreme pressure at their work. High/extreme anxiety levels were reported by 54.1% in March 2020 and 38.3% in May 2021. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that feeling supported regarding personal problems and encouraged to maintain social interactions was associated with lower anxiety levels (adjusted OR =0.292, p=0.009;adjusted OR =0.390, p=0.012). Conclusion(s): Despite perceived high work-related pressure levels, PHC services adapted to the pandemic demands by implementation of risk management plans. PHC workers anxiety levels reduced from March 2020 to May 2021. Feeling encouraged to maintain social interactions and supported regarding personal problems decreased the likelihood of anxiety.

Communication barriers in emergency remote education

Despite the abundance of methods, materials, pedagogical philosophies, and a variety of teacher training programs, many educators still do not have the skills and self-efficacy to effectively navigate the new combinations of distance, blended, and in-classroom learning. The review of literature signals the disrupted nature of teacher-student communication caused by the coronavirus pandemic. This is a literature review focused on the findings of 206 published open-access journal articles on teacher-student educational interaction during the COVID-19 pandemic. The primary goal of the current research is to provide an initial indication of the potential size and nature of the extant communication barriers in emergency remote learning. Furthermore, authors attempt to draw overall conclusions about the merits of existing propositions or methods aimed at overcoming the existing barriers. The complaints reported in the surveys include technical, psychological, personal, emotional, and health issues, lack of feedback, and poor student engagement. The latter prompts us to search for good practices that solve the aforementioned teacher-student interaction barriers or reduce the scope of these barriers. The outcomes of this study can help theorize about the many forms of barriers that exist in teacher-student interactions in emergency remote learning.