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‘You just don’t feel like your work goes recognised’: healthcare worker experiences of tension related to public discourse around the COVID-19 pandemic
  1. George Thomas Timmins1,
  2. Julia I Bandini2,
  3. Sangeeta C Ahluwalia3,
  4. Armenda Bialas4,
  5. Lisa S Meredith3,
  6. Courtney Gidengil2
  1. 1Pardee RAND Graduate School, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California, USA
  2. 2RAND Corporation, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
  3. 3RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California, USA
  4. 4RAND Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
  1. Correspondence to George Thomas Timmins, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California, USA; gtimmins{at}rand.org

Abstract

Objectives To understand the impact of public discourse and reaction around the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare worker (HCW) experiences and well-being caring for patients with COVID-19.

Methods We conducted 60 min in-depth interviews with 11 physicians and 12 nurses who were providing care to patients with COVID-19 in acute care settings at two health systems in the Western USA. Interviews were conducted in Spring-Summer 2022 using a semi-structured interview protocol that guided respondents through different stages of the pandemic.

Results Three themes emerged from the data around providing care in the unique social context of the COVID-19 pandemic including: (1) public polarisation and disagreement with science; (2) feelings of hope and optimism during the pandemic and (3) the compounded strain of providing care within this unique social context of the pandemic.

Conclusions To prepare for future pandemics, improved public health communications and social-emotional supports for HCWs are critical to ameliorate the physical and emotional impacts related to the social context of modern US pandemic response.

  • COVID-19
  • politics
  • mental health
  • health system

Data availability statement

No data are available. Not Applicable.

https://doi.org/10.1136/leader-2024-000983

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Data availability statement

No data are available. Not Applicable.

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Footnotes

  • Contributors SCA and JIB led the study design, protocol development and interviewing. GTT, AB, JIB and SCA all supported the analysis. GTT led manuscript drafting with significant editing and support from JIB. CG and LM led the parent study which this grew from and also participated in the editing and review of the manuscript. All read, edited and contributed to the manuscript development at various stages in the writing process. GTT acted as the guarantor for this work.

  • Funding Research reported in this report was funded through a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Award (PCORI ID: COVID‐2020C2‐10721). Further information available at: https://www.pcori.org/research-results/2020/does-stress-first-aid-program-improve-well-being-among-healthcare-workers-during-covid-19-pandemic-cover-hcw-project

  • Disclaimer The statements presented in this article are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), its Board of Governors or Methodology Committee.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.