Draper Heather, Wilson Sue, Ives Jonathan, Gratus Christine, Greenfield Sheila, Parry Jayne, Petts Judith, Sorell Tom
Centre for Biomedical Ethics, Department of Primary Care and General Practice, The University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK.
BMC Public Health. 2008 Jun 2;8:192. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-8-192.
Healthcare workers (HCWs) will be key players in any response to pandemic influenza, and will be in the front line of exposure to infection. Responding effectively to a pandemic relies on the majority of medical, nursing, laboratory and hotel services staff continuing to work normally. Planning assumes that during a pandemic normal healthcare service levels will be provided, although it anticipates that as caseloads increase only essential care will be provided. The ability of the NHS to provide expected service levels is entirely dependent upon HCWs continuing to work as normal.
METHODS/DESIGN: This study is designed as a two-phase multi-method study, incorporating focus groups and a questionnaire survey. In phase one, qualitative methods will be used to collect the views of a purposive sample of HCWs, to determine the range of factors associated with their responses to the prospect of working through pandemic influenza. In phase two, the findings from the focus groups, combined with the available literature, will be used to inform the design of a survey to determine the generalisability of these factors, enabling the estimation of the likely proportion of HCWs affected by each factor, and how likely it is that they would be willing and/or able to continue to work during an influenza pandemic.
There are potentially greater than normal health risks for some healthcare workers working during a pandemic, and these workers may be concerned about infecting family members/friends. HCWs will be as liable as other workers to care for sick family members and friends. It is vital to have information about how motivated HCWs will be to continue to work during such a crisis, and what factors might influence their decision to work/not to work. Through the identification and subsequent management of these factors it may be possible to implement strategies that will alleviate the concerns and fears of HCWs and remove potential barriers to working.
医护人员将是应对大流行性流感的关键力量，并且会处于接触感染的第一线。有效应对大流行依赖于大多数医疗、护理、实验室及酒店服务人员继续正常工作。规划假定在大流行期间将提供正常的医疗服务水平，尽管预计随着病例数量增加，仅提供基本护理。英国国家医疗服务体系（NHS）提供预期服务水平的能力完全取决于医护人员继续正常工作。
方法/设计：本研究设计为一个两阶段的多方法研究，包括焦点小组和问卷调查。在第一阶段，将采用定性方法收集有目的抽样的医护人员的观点，以确定与他们应对在大流行性流感期间工作前景的反应相关的因素范围。在第二阶段，焦点小组的研究结果将与现有文献相结合，用于设计一项调查，以确定这些因素的普遍性，从而能够估计受每个因素影响的医护人员的可能比例，以及他们在流感大流行期间愿意和/或能够继续工作的可能性。
对于一些在大流行期间工作的医护人员来说，健康风险可能高于正常水平，并且这些工作人员可能担心感染家庭成员/朋友。医护人员与其他工作人员一样有责任照顾生病的家庭成员和朋友。了解医护人员在这样的危机中继续工作的积极性如何，以及哪些因素可能影响他们工作/不工作的决定至关重要。通过识别并随后管理这些因素，有可能实施减轻医护人员担忧和恐惧并消除工作潜在障碍的策略。
