Being a technician during COVID-19: a qualitative cross-sectional survey on the experiences of clinical neurophysiology technicians.
Neurol Sci
; 44(2): 429-436, 2023 Feb.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2158062
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
During the Sars-CoV-2 virus pandemic, Italy faced an unrivaled health emergency. Its impact has been significant on the hospital system and personnel. Clinical neurophysiology technicians played a central role (but less visibly so compared to other healthcare workers) in managing the COVID-19 pandemic. This research aims to explore the experiences of clinical neurophysiology technicians during the pandemic and contribute to the debate on the well-being of healthcare workers on the front line.METHODS:
We implemented a cross-sectional survey across Italy. It contained questions that were open-ended for participants to develop their answers and acquire a fuller perspective. The responses were analyzed according to the framework method.RESULTS:
One hundred and thirty-one responses were valid, and the following themes were generated technicians' experiences in their relationship with patients, technicians' relationship with their workgroup and directors, and technicians' relationship with the context outside of their work. The first theme included sub-themes fear of infection, empathy, difficulty, a sense of obligation and responsibility, anger, and sadness. The second theme contained selfishness/solidarity in the workgroup, lack of protection/collaboration from superiors, stress, and distrust. The last theme included fear, stress/tiredness, serenity, sadness, and anger.CONCLUSION:
This study contributes to building a humanized perspective for personnel management, bringing attention to the technical work of healthcare professionals in an emergency and the emotional and relational dimensions. These are the starting points to define proper, contextually adequate support.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Qualitative research
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Neurol Sci
Journal subject:
Neurology
Year:
2023
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S10072-022-06551-5
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