The Art of Caring: The Lived Experiences and Challenges Faced by Healthcare Workers Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
Creators: name: Tus, Jhoselle
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: 160801 Applied Sociology, Program Evaluation and Social Impact Assessment
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: Sociology
subject: 160802 Environmental Sociology
subject: 160804 Rural Sociology
subject: 160809 Sociology of Education
subject: 160810 Urban Sociology and Community Studies
subject: 160808 Sociology and Social Studies of Science and Technology
subject: 170101 Biological Psychology (Neuropsychology, Psychopharmacology, Physiological Psychology)
subject: FOS: Psychology
subject: 170107 Industrial and Organisational Psychology
subject: Personality, Social and Criminal Psychology
subject: Neuroscience and Physiological Psychology
subject: Clinical Psychology
subject: 170104 Forensic Psychology
subject: FOS: Other medical sciences
subject: Organizational Behavioral Psychology
subject: Developmental and Educational Psychology
subject: 170102 Developmental Psychology and Ageing
subject: 170199 Psychology not elsewhere classified
subject: 170113 Social and Community Psychology
subject: 170106 Health, Clinical and Counselling Psychology

description: Healthcare workers were among the primary sectors that stood on the frontline amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. They play a significant role in giving medical aid and services, especially at the time when the world requires them the most. In addition, because of their direct exposure to the pandemic, they faced a variety of challenges, including physical risk from excessive workloads, psychological distress, and financial difficulties. This study explores the lived experiences and challenges faced by healthcare workers amidst the COVID 19 pandemic, specifically: (1) to describe the experiences of healthcare workers amidst the COVID 19 pandemic; (2) to describe the challenges faced by healthcare workers amidst the COVID 19 pandemic; and (3) to describe their coping strategies. Given that, the study utilized an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) with ten (10) respondents from the community. Based on the study, the findings are the following: (1) All of the respondents were physically challenged. Specifically, the extreme risk and challenges brought by the pandemic caused numbers of healthcare workers to leave the job, which further resulted in an excessive number of workloads among those who stayed. (2) Aside from being physically challenged, the respondents were also psychologically distressed, which is mostly brought on by the fear of carrying and transmitting the disease among their family and community. Moreover, receiving insufficient benefits causes all of the respondents to feel unsatisfied with the compensation they received after putting in an extreme amount of work and exerting great effort on their job. Regardless, they maintained a strong and tough attitude to cope with the challenging call of duty amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, (3) seeking emotional, social, and financial support to cope with the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic provides a great help among the healthcare workers in such a time as the pandemic.