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The structural vulnerability of healthcare workers during COVID-19: Observations on the social context of risk and the equitable distribution of resources

Healthcare workers have emerged as a vulnerable population group during COVID-19, and securing supply chains of personal protective equipment (PPE) has been identified as a critical issue to protect healthcare workers and to prevent health system overwhelm. While securing PPE is a complex logistical...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Smith, Catherine
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier Ltd. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7280115/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32534301
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113119
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author Smith, Catherine
author_facet Smith, Catherine
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description Healthcare workers have emerged as a vulnerable population group during COVID-19, and securing supply chains of personal protective equipment (PPE) has been identified as a critical issue to protect healthcare workers and to prevent health system overwhelm. While securing PPE is a complex logistical challenge facing many countries, it is vital to recognise the social and health systems issues that structure the differential degrees of risk faced by various subgroups of healthcare workers. As an illustrative case study, the author identifies two key social factors that are likely to face the degrees of risk faced by midwives in the Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, if and when COVID-19 takes hold in Indonesia. Healthcare workers in both high and low resource-settings globally are likely to face particular risks and vulnerabilities that are shaped by localized social and health systems factors. Qualitative social and health systems research can and should be utilized proactively in order to protect healthcare workers, to inform more equitable program design, and to create a foundation for health equity within the future of global health that emerges from the pandemic.
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spelling pubmed-72801152020-06-09 The structural vulnerability of healthcare workers during COVID-19: Observations on the social context of risk and the equitable distribution of resources Smith, Catherine Soc Sci Med Article Healthcare workers have emerged as a vulnerable population group during COVID-19, and securing supply chains of personal protective equipment (PPE) has been identified as a critical issue to protect healthcare workers and to prevent health system overwhelm. While securing PPE is a complex logistical challenge facing many countries, it is vital to recognise the social and health systems issues that structure the differential degrees of risk faced by various subgroups of healthcare workers. As an illustrative case study, the author identifies two key social factors that are likely to face the degrees of risk faced by midwives in the Special Region of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, if and when COVID-19 takes hold in Indonesia. Healthcare workers in both high and low resource-settings globally are likely to face particular risks and vulnerabilities that are shaped by localized social and health systems factors. Qualitative social and health systems research can and should be utilized proactively in order to protect healthcare workers, to inform more equitable program design, and to create a foundation for health equity within the future of global health that emerges from the pandemic. Elsevier Ltd. 2020-08 2020-06-09 /pmc/articles/PMC7280115/ /pubmed/32534301 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113119 Text en © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.
spellingShingle Article
Smith, Catherine
The structural vulnerability of healthcare workers during COVID-19: Observations on the social context of risk and the equitable distribution of resources
title The structural vulnerability of healthcare workers during COVID-19: Observations on the social context of risk and the equitable distribution of resources
title_full The structural vulnerability of healthcare workers during COVID-19: Observations on the social context of risk and the equitable distribution of resources
title_fullStr The structural vulnerability of healthcare workers during COVID-19: Observations on the social context of risk and the equitable distribution of resources
title_full_unstemmed The structural vulnerability of healthcare workers during COVID-19: Observations on the social context of risk and the equitable distribution of resources
title_short The structural vulnerability of healthcare workers during COVID-19: Observations on the social context of risk and the equitable distribution of resources
title_sort structural vulnerability of healthcare workers during covid-19: observations on the social context of risk and the equitable distribution of resources
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7280115/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32534301
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113119
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