Experiences of healthcare workers working in COVID-19 isolation wards in Lesotho: a qualitative study

Abstract

Background: Health and wellbeing of Healthcare workers impacts the health of the nation. COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light a number of challenges faced by Healthcare workers all over the world, affecting their psychosocial, financial, spiritual and physical well-being. There has been an alarming number of healthcare workers being affected by COVID-19 across the globe, some even succumbed to death as a result of COVID-19. Some identified reasons for this tragedy have been lack of appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), insufficient knowledge about the disease, shortage of healthcare workers and the compromised welfare of the Healthcare workers. Few studies within Lesotho focused on the perceptions of healthcare workers on COVID-19 and there was none conducted on the experiences of healthcare workers working in the COVID-19 isolation wards therefore, the aim of this study is describe the experiences of Healthcare workers working in COVID-19 isolation wards in Lesotho. Material and Methods: A descriptive phenomenological research design was utilized and data was collected using unstructured interviews which were audio-recorded. The interviews were conducted amongst the nine Healthcare workers who were working in the COVID-19 isolation ward and they composed on one office assistant, two medical doctors and six registered nurses. Analysis: Colaizzi’s seven-step method of qualitative data analysis was followed in this study. Results: Findings revealed increased workload, significant amount of negative emotions in the early stages of the pandemic, positive emotions at the later stage as well as stigma and discrimination. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic placed a huge burden on the health care system. Health care workers, being in the front line, were significantly affected; they had to endure continued psychological distress because of the unique type of care required.