Health workers' perception and emotions of teleconsultation in pediatric cancer care (preprint)

ABSTRACT

Background: and aims: During the first lockdown of the novel Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), we developed a teleconsultation model to replace in-person visits. We conducted a survey-based study with the aim to evaluate satisfaction and emotions of health workers (HWs), to assess the feasibility of teleconsultations and to evaluate technical issues. Methods: This is a prospective monocentric exploratory study in which data were collected from March until May 2020 in the Lyon Pediatric Hematology and Oncology institute (IHOPe). We realized synchronous, video-based consultations between HWs and pediatric patients, treated for blood or solid malignancies or blood benign diseases. Every HW completed an online, pseudo-anonymized questionnaire which covered technical aspects, data concerning satisfaction, perception of the quality of the interaction with the patient and emotions felt after the teleconsultation. A score was calculated for each aspect. In order to study the relationship between the scores, the correlation coefficient method was used. Results: Eleven specialists participated in the study and we selected 84 questionnaires. With a satisfaction rate of 74%, HWs felt mostly calm (80%), relaxed (70%), stress-free (69%) and relieved (65%). We calculated the following median scores an overall satisfaction score of 6.67 (0-10), a global feeling score of 8.79 (3.33-10.00), and a quality score of 7.34 (2.50-10.00). A strong correlation between the quality of the teleconsultation and the satisfaction of the HWs has been highlighted (r = 0,588). Conclusion: Our series is an encouragingly positive experience from the perspective of the HWs, their feelings and perceptions.