Protecting healthcare workers from COVID‐19 : a comparative contextualized analysis

Abstract

Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at high risk of occupational exposure to infectious diseases if not adequately protected, as well‐documented in outbreaks of SARS, MERS, and Ebola and ongoing exposure to tuberculosis in high‐burden settings. The COVID‐19 pandemic has drawn further attention to adequately protecting HCWs worldwide as they care for COVID‐19 patients while also trying to meet ongoing healthcare demands amid chronic global HCW shortages. Significant pressures associated with the increased health system burden faced by HCWs during the pandemic include risk of infection, stigmatization, and anxieties about family transmission, along with fatigue, burnout, stress, and shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE). However, while there is general agreement on many aspects of policy to protect the physical and mental health of HCWs, approaches to implementation diverge widely. Moreover, while it is agreed that cross‐disciplinary efforts need to be well‐integrated and not operate at “cross purposes”, often infection prevention and control (IPC) and public health measures are inconsistent and vary widely across jurisdictions. Differences may be due to variable availability of PPE (e.g. N95 respirators, masks, gloves, gowns); diverse operational needs (e.g. service demands requiring allowing COVID‐exposed HCWs to work rather than self‐isolating); lack of test kits or related reagents (e.g. as return‐to‐work criteria); and availability of trained personnel for exposure monitoring, testing strategy and contact tracing for HCWs may also differ widely.

Description

Keywords

COVID-19, HEALTHCARE WORKERS, WORKING CONDITIONS, GLOBAL

Citation

DOI