The therapeutic itinerary of health workers diagnosed with COVID-19

OBJECTIVE: to analyze the therapeutic itinerary of health workers diagnosed with COVID-19. METHOD: qualitative study conducted with 132 health workers diagnosed with COVID-19. Data were collected using a semi-structured form sent through the social media and processed with the Interface de R pour Analyses Multidimensionnelles de Textes et de Questionnaires, according to the Descending Hierarchical Classification. RESULTS: the participants included 116 women and 16 men with 14 different professions within the health field. Five classes of excerpts emerged from the text, revealing the therapeutic itinerary from the onset of symptoms, up to referrals for testing and confirming COVID-19. Additionally, the aspects that facilitated or hindered access to testing in healthcare units were identified, in addition to misinformation and the need for workers to pay for the tests to obtain a diagnosis. CONCLUSION: this study’s results show the difficulties health workers experienced to access the tests and related information and the delay in accessing the results and obtaining a sick leave to remain in isolation at home. The health workers who did not get support in terms of management and monitoring from the facilities where they worked adopted an active search.