A Sense of Being Needed: A Phenomenological Analysis of Hospital-Based Rehabilitation Professionals’ Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic
This article has been Reviewed by the following groups
Listed in
- Evaluated articles (ScreenIT)
Abstract
Objective
The purpose of this study was to explore lived experiences of rehabilitation professionals working in hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the ethical issues and moral distress that these professionals might have encountered.
Methods
An interpretative phenomenological study was performed. First-person experiences of rehabilitation professionals (dieticians, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech-language therapists) were collected with semi-structured interviews and analyzed with interpretative phenomenological analysis.
Results
The data of 39 hospital-based rehabilitation professionals revealed 4 themes: a disease with great impact, personal health and safety, staying human in chaotic times, and solidarity and changing roles. Participant experiences show that the virus and COVID-19 measures had a significant impact on the in-hospital working environment due to the massive downscaling of regular care, due to infection prevention measures, and due to unknown risks to rehabilitation professionals’ personal health. At the same time, participants experienced a certain freedom, which made room for authentic motives, connection, and solidarity. Participants felt welcomed and appreciated at the COVID-19 wards and intensive care units and were proud that they were able to fulfill their roles. The findings reflect a wide range of situations that were morally complex and led to moral distress.
Conclusion
To diminish the long-lasting negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and moral distress, employers should empathize with the experiences of hospital-based rehabilitation professionals and create conditions for ethical reflection. Our data show that hospital-based rehabilitation professionals value professional autonomy. Creating room for professional autonomy helps them feel needed, connected, and energized. However, the needs of hospital-based rehabilitation professionals may conflict with organizational rules and structures.
Impact
Hospital-based rehabilitation professionals were involved in situations they considered morally undesirable, and they inevitably faced moral distress during the COVID-19 crisis. This study offers rationale and guidance to employers regarding how to reduce the long-term negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on rehabilitation professionals.
Article activity feed
-
-
-
SciScore for 10.1101/2020.11.18.20233908: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement Consent: Professionals willing to participate signed their informed consent digitally using Castor electronic data capture.
IACUC: The Radboudumc ethical committee (dossier number 2020-6520) judged that this study does not fall under the scope of the Dutch Medical Research Involving Human Subjects Act (WMO).Randomization not detected. Blinding The collected data were analyzed by two different researchers independently to create maximum thoroughness and to correct for individual blind spots. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not …
SciScore for 10.1101/2020.11.18.20233908: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement Consent: Professionals willing to participate signed their informed consent digitally using Castor electronic data capture.
IACUC: The Radboudumc ethical committee (dossier number 2020-6520) judged that this study does not fall under the scope of the Dutch Medical Research Involving Human Subjects Act (WMO).Randomization not detected. Blinding The collected data were analyzed by two different researchers independently to create maximum thoroughness and to correct for individual blind spots. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:Limitations of this study include the lack of data triangulation. The use of other data collection methods, for instance participatory observations, could have enriched the data. However, due to the limited availability of PPE, and the risk of virus transmission this was not an option. Risk of viral spreading was also the reason that interviews had to be performed through video calling. Video calling might have limited the richness of the interviews because of less rapport between interviewer and participant and less non-verbal communication. However, recent studies suggest that in-person interviews are only marginally superior to video calls.[32,33] For this study only the perspective of AHP employees was sought, while the perspectives and interests of managers of organizations, or politicians countrywide, might be opposing. All study participants were AHPs employed in Dutch hospitals. The generalizability of findings might be limited since AHPs in other countries might have had different roles and might have been working under different circumstances. Furthermore, the severity of the COVID-19 crisis was different between countries and might therefore not be comparable. However, the curve of hospitalizations was similar to other countries, at least in Western Europe. In conclusion, during the COVID-19 crisis, AHPs faced a wide range of situations that were morally complex and led to moral distress, requiring a pragmatic tradeoff of values in the search for good care, and the...
Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
-