TY - JOUR
T1 - Respected but stigmatized
T2 - Healthcare workers caring for COVID-19 patients
AU - Spruijt, Ineke
AU - Cronin, Anne
AU - Udeorji, Frances
AU - Nazir, Mamoona
AU - Shehu, Samaila
AU - Poix, Sebastien
AU - Villanueva, Andre
AU - Jansen, Niesje
AU - Huitema, Ineke
AU - Suurmond, Jeanine
AU - Fiekert, Kathy
N1 - Funding Information: IS and KF received funding from the Dutch Sonnevanck Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We would like to thank all study participants for their effortless and outmost important work in healthcare facilities, caring for COVID-19 patients. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 Spruijt et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2023/7
Y1 - 2023/7
N2 - BACKGROUND: Healthcare workers (HCWs) caring for Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients are at increased risk of being stigmatized, which compromises their individual mental well-being and the quality of care they deliver. Stigma-reduction interventions may (partly) prevent this. However, there is a lack of in-depth understanding of the experiences and underlying causes of COVID-19 stigma among HCWs, which is needed to design such interventions. We conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews to assess COVID-19 stigma among COVID-19 HCWs in Ireland, Nigeria, The Netherlands, Pakistan, and The Philippines. METHODS: We used a purposive and snowball sampling to recruit a total of 53 HCWs for online interviews (13 in Ireland; 15 in Nigeria; 6 in The Netherlands; 6 in Pakistan; and 13 in The Philippines (2021). After verbatim transcribing interviews, we used a thematic approach for data analysis. RESULTS: In all countries, stigmatization of COVID-19 HCWs is driven by fear of infection and the perception of HCWs being carriers of the disease amplified by them wearing of scrubs and personal protective equipment. There were differences between countries in the way stigma manifested in self- anticipated and experienced stigma like scolding, discrimination, avoidance, (self-) isolation, and exclusion in public, in the community, at work, and in the household. The stigma resulted in feelings of depression, loneliness, isolation, and the desire to quit one's job. DISCUSSION: COVID-19 HCWs from all countries experienced all forms of stigmatization related to their work as a COVID-19 frontliner. This affected their mental well-being, which in turn affects job performance and quality of care, there is a high need to develop stigma reduction tools for HCWs.
AB - BACKGROUND: Healthcare workers (HCWs) caring for Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients are at increased risk of being stigmatized, which compromises their individual mental well-being and the quality of care they deliver. Stigma-reduction interventions may (partly) prevent this. However, there is a lack of in-depth understanding of the experiences and underlying causes of COVID-19 stigma among HCWs, which is needed to design such interventions. We conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews to assess COVID-19 stigma among COVID-19 HCWs in Ireland, Nigeria, The Netherlands, Pakistan, and The Philippines. METHODS: We used a purposive and snowball sampling to recruit a total of 53 HCWs for online interviews (13 in Ireland; 15 in Nigeria; 6 in The Netherlands; 6 in Pakistan; and 13 in The Philippines (2021). After verbatim transcribing interviews, we used a thematic approach for data analysis. RESULTS: In all countries, stigmatization of COVID-19 HCWs is driven by fear of infection and the perception of HCWs being carriers of the disease amplified by them wearing of scrubs and personal protective equipment. There were differences between countries in the way stigma manifested in self- anticipated and experienced stigma like scolding, discrimination, avoidance, (self-) isolation, and exclusion in public, in the community, at work, and in the household. The stigma resulted in feelings of depression, loneliness, isolation, and the desire to quit one's job. DISCUSSION: COVID-19 HCWs from all countries experienced all forms of stigmatization related to their work as a COVID-19 frontliner. This affected their mental well-being, which in turn affects job performance and quality of care, there is a high need to develop stigma reduction tools for HCWs.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85165449002&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288609
DO - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288609
M3 - Article
C2 - 37478112
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 18
SP - e0288609
JO - PLOS ONE
JF - PLOS ONE
IS - 7 July
M1 - e0288609
ER -