Using focus group interviews to investigate the willingness of medical personnel to voluntarily participate in COVID-19 group tasks in a one government quarantine facility in north Taiwan

ABSTRACT

Objectives: The Taiwan Centers for Disease Control have established government quarantine facilities (GQF) to prevent the community spread of COVID-19. Medical personnel are frontline workers who must have contact with individuals in quarantine and are thus at higher risk of infection. As a reference for future recruitment, this study investigated why some medical personnel volunteer to care for individuals in GQF. Methods: The researchers used purposive sampling to recruit participants from a GQF in northern Taiwan. Focus group interviews were administered. The consistency of the interview outline content was 91%. After the interviews, content analysis was performed to examine and summarize the data. The data were coded before comparison, categorization and summarization, producing various core categories. Results: A total of 12 participants voluntarily attended our interviews, compromising 4 men and 8 women, with an average age of 48.1 ±6.4 years and an average length of service in GQF of 82.1 ± 77.1 days. Our study results revealed four aspects and six reasons that affect the voluntary participation of medical personnel in epidemic prevention tasks. The first aspect was meeting safety needs, and the reasons included sufficient personal protective equipment, complete standard operating procedures, and orientation training and in-service education and training. The second aspect was meeting the needs of love and belonging, and the reason included a good working atmosphere. The third aspect was meeting the need for self-esteem, and the reason included Taiwan's previous SARS epidemic prevention experience. Finally, the fourth aspect was meeting the need for selfrealization, and the reason was based on the humanistic concern. Conclusions: At the time of the coronavirus outbreak, various countries reported insufficient medical personnel or personnel unwilling to participate in epidemic prevention work. Our results revealed that if the environment met the Maslow's hierarchy of needs, it can attract medical personnel to volunteer in GQF tasks. In formulating policies, the needs must be met at all levels, so that medical staff would be willing to participate in epidemic prevention work. © 2021 Chinese Public Health Association of Taiwan. All rights reserved.