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. 2022 Nov 19;19(22):15287.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph192215287.

Caring for Older People during and beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experiences of Residential Health Care Workers

Veronica Sze-Ki Lai  1 , Sui-Yu Yau  1 , Linda Yin-King Lee  1 , Becky Siu-Yin Li  1 , Susan Sin-Ping Law  1 , Shixin Huang  2
Affiliations

Caring for Older People during and beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experiences of Residential Health Care Workers

Veronica Sze-Ki Lai et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Older people and health care workers in residential care homes are particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. As COVID-19 has been spreading around the world for more than two years, the nature of care delivery has been substantially transformed. This study aims at understanding the long-term and ongoing impacts of COVID-19 on the delivery of care in residential care homes. It investigates how the delivery of care has been transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic and how health care workers adapted to these changes from the perspectives of frontline health care workers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted from February to December 2021 with a purposive sample of 30 health care workers from six residential care homes in Hong Kong. Thematic analysis identified three themes, including (1) enhancing infection prevention and control measures; (2) maintaining the psychosocial wellbeing of residents; and (3) developing resilience. Discussions and implications were drawn from these findings.

Keywords: COVID-19; delivery of care; health care workers; long-term care facilities; qualitative study.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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