Perceived barriers to the process of COVID-19 control among frontline healthcare workers in South Korea: a qualitative study
Objective This study aimed to explore barriers to disease control perceived by frontline healthcare workers (HCWs) working in community settings during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea.Design A qualitative study was conducted using semistructured focus group interviews. All interviews were condu...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMJ Publishing Group
2022-12-01
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| Series: | BMJ Open |
| Online Access: | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/12/e063899.full |
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| author | Heeyoung Lee Myoungsoon You Bee-Ah Kang Sijoung Kwon |
| author_facet | Heeyoung Lee Myoungsoon You Bee-Ah Kang Sijoung Kwon |
| author_sort | Heeyoung Lee |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Objective This study aimed to explore barriers to disease control perceived by frontline healthcare workers (HCWs) working in community settings during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea.Design A qualitative study was conducted using semistructured focus group interviews. All interviews were conducted in Korean on Zoom between October and November 2020, audio-recorded and transcribed for reflexive thematic analysis.Setting All participants were working in Gyeonggi-do, the most populous province in South Korea. The province had the second-highest COVID-19 infection rates at the time of the interview.Participants Participants serving as HCWs in Gyeonggi Province were eligible to participate in the study. A total of 20 HCWs comprised of public health doctors and professional epidemiologists agreed to participate in the study.Results Four themes were generated. Each theme described how these barriers affected a disease control process: (1) ‘uncooperative public and unprepared community health centre’ delayed the investigation of newly diagnosed COVID-19 cases; (2) ‘uncoordinated disease control system’ impeded the collection and analysis of digital data; (3) ‘the gap between responsibilities and capabilities’ hindered the classification of close and casual contacts; and (4) ‘conflicts with persons who have different interests and priorities’ hampered epidemiological decision-making.Conclusions Our study found that frontline HCWs experienced various challenges disrupting their work performance to control COVID-19. We provide several recommendations, such as providing HCWs with systematic interview skill training, strengthening patient information security systems, providing sufficient resources, securing a regular workforce, collecting the field experiences of HCWs, implementing task-shifting, and having regular stakeholder meetings. These strategies may promote work capacity among the frontline HCWs and subsequently strengthen emergency preparedness. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-b6022dfa2fad4bec999aaaf106ed9eb1 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2044-6055 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2022-12-01 |
| publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMJ Open |
| spelling | doaj-art-b6022dfa2fad4bec999aaaf106ed9eb12025-08-20T02:27:05ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Open2044-60552022-12-01121210.1136/bmjopen-2022-063899Perceived barriers to the process of COVID-19 control among frontline healthcare workers in South Korea: a qualitative studyHeeyoung Lee0Myoungsoon You1Bee-Ah Kang2Sijoung Kwon3Center for Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam, KoreaDepartment of Public Health Sciences, Seoul National University Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul, KoreaDepartment of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USASociology, Seoul National University, Seoul, KoreaObjective This study aimed to explore barriers to disease control perceived by frontline healthcare workers (HCWs) working in community settings during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea.Design A qualitative study was conducted using semistructured focus group interviews. All interviews were conducted in Korean on Zoom between October and November 2020, audio-recorded and transcribed for reflexive thematic analysis.Setting All participants were working in Gyeonggi-do, the most populous province in South Korea. The province had the second-highest COVID-19 infection rates at the time of the interview.Participants Participants serving as HCWs in Gyeonggi Province were eligible to participate in the study. A total of 20 HCWs comprised of public health doctors and professional epidemiologists agreed to participate in the study.Results Four themes were generated. Each theme described how these barriers affected a disease control process: (1) ‘uncooperative public and unprepared community health centre’ delayed the investigation of newly diagnosed COVID-19 cases; (2) ‘uncoordinated disease control system’ impeded the collection and analysis of digital data; (3) ‘the gap between responsibilities and capabilities’ hindered the classification of close and casual contacts; and (4) ‘conflicts with persons who have different interests and priorities’ hampered epidemiological decision-making.Conclusions Our study found that frontline HCWs experienced various challenges disrupting their work performance to control COVID-19. We provide several recommendations, such as providing HCWs with systematic interview skill training, strengthening patient information security systems, providing sufficient resources, securing a regular workforce, collecting the field experiences of HCWs, implementing task-shifting, and having regular stakeholder meetings. These strategies may promote work capacity among the frontline HCWs and subsequently strengthen emergency preparedness.https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/12/e063899.full |
| spellingShingle | Heeyoung Lee Myoungsoon You Bee-Ah Kang Sijoung Kwon Perceived barriers to the process of COVID-19 control among frontline healthcare workers in South Korea: a qualitative study BMJ Open |
| title | Perceived barriers to the process of COVID-19 control among frontline healthcare workers in South Korea: a qualitative study |
| title_full | Perceived barriers to the process of COVID-19 control among frontline healthcare workers in South Korea: a qualitative study |
| title_fullStr | Perceived barriers to the process of COVID-19 control among frontline healthcare workers in South Korea: a qualitative study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Perceived barriers to the process of COVID-19 control among frontline healthcare workers in South Korea: a qualitative study |
| title_short | Perceived barriers to the process of COVID-19 control among frontline healthcare workers in South Korea: a qualitative study |
| title_sort | perceived barriers to the process of covid 19 control among frontline healthcare workers in south korea a qualitative study |
| url | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/12/e063899.full |
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