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A stoic and altruistic orientation towards their work: a qualitative study of healthcare professionals’ experiences of awaiting a COVID-19 test result

BACKGROUND: Extensive measures to reduce person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 are required to control the current outbreak. Special attention is directed at healthcare professionals as reducing the risk of infection in healthcare is essential. The purpose of this study was to explore healthcare...

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Autores principales: Missel, Malene, Bernild, Camilla, Dagyaran, Ilkay, Christensen, Signe Westh, Berg, Selina Kikkenborg
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7656225/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33176771
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-05904-0
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author Missel, Malene
Bernild, Camilla
Dagyaran, Ilkay
Christensen, Signe Westh
Berg, Selina Kikkenborg
author_facet Missel, Malene
Bernild, Camilla
Dagyaran, Ilkay
Christensen, Signe Westh
Berg, Selina Kikkenborg
author_sort Missel, Malene
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Extensive measures to reduce person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 are required to control the current outbreak. Special attention is directed at healthcare professionals as reducing the risk of infection in healthcare is essential. The purpose of this study was to explore healthcare professionals’ experiences of awaiting a test result for a potential COVID-19 infection. METHODS: Qualitative interviews with 15 healthcare professionals were performed, underpinned by a phenomenological hermeneutical analytical framework. RESULTS: The participating healthcare professionals’ experiences of awaiting a COVID-19 test result were found to be associated with a stoic and altruistic orientation towards their work. These healthcare professionals presented a strong professional identity overriding most concerns about their own health. The result of the coronavirus test was a decisive parameter for whether healthcare professionals could return to work. The healthcare professionals were aware that their family and friends were having a hard time knowing that the COVID-19 infection risk was part of their jobs. This concern did not, however, cause the healthcare professionals to falter in their belief that they were doing the right thing by focusing on their core area. The threat to own health ran through the minds of the healthcare professionals occasionally, which makes access to testing particularly important. CONCLUSION: The participating healthcare professionals had a strong professional identity. However, a discrepancy between an altruistic role as a healthcare professional and the expectations that come from the community was illuminated. A mental health coronavirus hotline for healthcare professionals is suggested.
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spelling pubmed-76562252020-11-12 A stoic and altruistic orientation towards their work: a qualitative study of healthcare professionals’ experiences of awaiting a COVID-19 test result Missel, Malene Bernild, Camilla Dagyaran, Ilkay Christensen, Signe Westh Berg, Selina Kikkenborg BMC Health Serv Res Research Article BACKGROUND: Extensive measures to reduce person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 are required to control the current outbreak. Special attention is directed at healthcare professionals as reducing the risk of infection in healthcare is essential. The purpose of this study was to explore healthcare professionals’ experiences of awaiting a test result for a potential COVID-19 infection. METHODS: Qualitative interviews with 15 healthcare professionals were performed, underpinned by a phenomenological hermeneutical analytical framework. RESULTS: The participating healthcare professionals’ experiences of awaiting a COVID-19 test result were found to be associated with a stoic and altruistic orientation towards their work. These healthcare professionals presented a strong professional identity overriding most concerns about their own health. The result of the coronavirus test was a decisive parameter for whether healthcare professionals could return to work. The healthcare professionals were aware that their family and friends were having a hard time knowing that the COVID-19 infection risk was part of their jobs. This concern did not, however, cause the healthcare professionals to falter in their belief that they were doing the right thing by focusing on their core area. The threat to own health ran through the minds of the healthcare professionals occasionally, which makes access to testing particularly important. CONCLUSION: The participating healthcare professionals had a strong professional identity. However, a discrepancy between an altruistic role as a healthcare professional and the expectations that come from the community was illuminated. A mental health coronavirus hotline for healthcare professionals is suggested. BioMed Central 2020-11-11 /pmc/articles/PMC7656225/ /pubmed/33176771 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-05904-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research Article
Missel, Malene
Bernild, Camilla
Dagyaran, Ilkay
Christensen, Signe Westh
Berg, Selina Kikkenborg
A stoic and altruistic orientation towards their work: a qualitative study of healthcare professionals’ experiences of awaiting a COVID-19 test result
title A stoic and altruistic orientation towards their work: a qualitative study of healthcare professionals’ experiences of awaiting a COVID-19 test result
title_full A stoic and altruistic orientation towards their work: a qualitative study of healthcare professionals’ experiences of awaiting a COVID-19 test result
title_fullStr A stoic and altruistic orientation towards their work: a qualitative study of healthcare professionals’ experiences of awaiting a COVID-19 test result
title_full_unstemmed A stoic and altruistic orientation towards their work: a qualitative study of healthcare professionals’ experiences of awaiting a COVID-19 test result
title_short A stoic and altruistic orientation towards their work: a qualitative study of healthcare professionals’ experiences of awaiting a COVID-19 test result
title_sort stoic and altruistic orientation towards their work: a qualitative study of healthcare professionals’ experiences of awaiting a covid-19 test result
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7656225/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33176771
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-05904-0
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