{"id":161971,"date":"2022-07-13T15:21:47","date_gmt":"2022-07-14T01:21:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=161971"},"modified":"2022-07-21T09:11:12","modified_gmt":"2022-07-21T19:11:12","slug":"covid-19-impact-hawaii-healthcare-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2022\/07\/13\/covid-19-impact-hawaii-healthcare-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19&#8217;s impact on Hawai\u02bbi healthcare workers highlighted"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/manoa-jabsom-thompson-covid-research-2.jpg\" alt=\"Nurse putting on COVID-19 personal protective equipment\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-162002\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/manoa-jabsom-thompson-covid-research-2.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/manoa-jabsom-thompson-covid-research-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/manoa-jabsom-thompson-covid-research-2-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> healthcare workers surveyed in 2020 were primarily concerned about contracting COVID-19 at work and transmitting it to their families, according to a recently published University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> at M\u0101noa <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC8995858\/\">public health study<\/a>. The survey was conducted between July and October 2020 by <strong>Anna D. Davide<\/strong> and <strong>Amelia R. Arechy<\/strong>, who earned their bachelor&#8217;s of arts degrees in public health in December 2020 and May 2021, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;As essential workers on the front lines of a pandemic, healthcare workers are unable to shelter-in-place, and to treat patients, often cannot obey physical distancing guidelines, making them highly exposed and vulnerable to infection,&rdquo; said Davide.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/mhanational.org\/mental-health-healthcare-workers-covid-19\">national statistics<\/a>, 93% of health care workers were experiencing stress in 2020, and 76% of healthcare workers with children reported that they were worried about exposing their families to COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p>Davide added, &ldquo;Despite this, we did not know about the impact of COVID-19 on the physical and emotional health of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> healthcare workers, or how healthcare workers in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> may have experienced the COVID-19 pandemic differently than those in less isolated geographic regions&#8212;this study worked to change that.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The study also highlighted several findings of how the pandemic has affected the local healthcare community:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Solo practitioners in outpatient clinics reported increased financial challenges and greater difficulty obtaining personal protective equipment than those employed by hospitals or group practices.<\/li>\n<li>Nearly all participants noted an increased use of telehealth options for healthcare access.<\/li>\n<li>Inequities in access to telehealth services among k\u016bpuna (elders) and underserved populations, including those with poor internet connectivity and low technological literacy.<\/li>\n<li>Participants expressed worry that the new &ldquo;forgiving&rdquo; workplace attitudes that emerged from the pandemic would be diminished after the spread of COVID-19 subsides. <\/li>\n<li>Additional mental health support and resources from employers are needed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Study methods<\/h2>\n<p>Data for the study was collected through qualitative interviews and demographic surveys. Davide and Arechy recruited two cohorts for the interview portion, which consisted of 15 participants in Cohort 1 (July&#8211;August) and 16 participants in Cohort 2 (September&#8211;October), all between the ages of 18&#8211;60+ years old. Seven themes were identified among the participants utilizing thematic analysis: 1) Emotional effects 2) Physical effects, 3) Workplace effects, 4) Telehealth and patient care, 5) Private practice challenges, 6) Mental health resources and 7) Regional attitude.<\/p>\n<p>The demographic surveys were self-reported and included 28 physicians and three registered nurses. Participants were asked about their degree of worry about the COVID-19 pandemic, their overall wellbeing at the beginning of the pandemic, and their degree of worry at the time of the survey.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I thought the most interesting finding was the increase in telehealth use among physicians and the perceived impact it would have in the future. It appears that the COVID-19 pandemic may have helped create a shift in medicine in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> by encouraging hospitals and clinics to provide virtual care and increase accessibility for patients,&rdquo; said Arechy.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I was proud of Ms. Arechy and Ms. Davide&#8217;s decision to use their undergraduate capstone project to contribute to our understanding of the pandemic&#8217;s impact on the health care community. Their work is an outstanding example of our students&#8217; passion for public health,&rdquo; said <strong>Opal V. Buchthal<\/strong>, assistant professor of public health.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, available personal protective equipment, good communication and leadership from employers, and new information regarding best practices against COVID-19 contributed to health care workers&#8217; sense of safety. The study&#8217;s findings help bring a better understanding on the effect of the pandemic on health care workers. Further research into the effects of COVID-19, specifically on nurses in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span>, is recommended by the researchers.<\/p>\n<p>Davide and Arechy&#8217;s co-authors on the paper also included Buchthal, and Professor <strong>Joseph <span aria-label=\"Keaweaimoku\">Keawe&#699;aimoku<\/span> Kaholokula<\/strong> and Assistant Professor <strong>Andrea H. Hermosura<\/strong> from the <a href=\"https:\/\/dnhh.hawaii.edu\/\">Department of Native Hawaiian Health<\/a> at the John A. Burns School of Medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Study participants were primarily concerned about contracting COVID-19 at work and transmitting it to their families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[1411,1417,31,1363,242,596,9],"class_list":["post-161971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-covid-19","tag-covid-19-research","tag-john-a-burns-school-of-medicine","tag-manoa-research","tag-native-hawaiian-health","tag-myron-b-thompson-school-of-social-work","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161971"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162293,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161971\/revisions\/162293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}