A Qualitative Study of the COVID-19 Response Experiences of Public Health Workers in the United States
Date
2021-12-17
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Health Security
Abstract
The mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on frontline, patient-facing healthcare staff have been described in several studies, but the effects of the COVID-19 response on the US public health workforce have not been well characterized. In early 2021, we conducted interviews with a subset of public health practitioners in the United States who participated in a cross-sectional survey and indicated their willingness to participate in a follow-up interview. An interview guide was developed to collect information about professional roles since the start of the pandemic, aspects of the individual COVID-19 response that impacted mental health, and aspects of the organizational/institutional COVID-19 response that impacted mental health, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of, opportunities for, and threats to public health professionals and organizations going forward. Interviews were transcribed and inductively coded to identify themes. Of the 48 people invited to participate, 24 completed an interview between January 28 and February 23, 2021. Five key themes were identified through inductive coding of interview transcripts: (1) teamwork and workplace camaraderie, (2) potential for growth in the field of public health, (3) considerations for adaptive work environments (eg, remote work, work out of jurisdiction, transition to telework), (4) politicization of response, and (5) constrained hiring capacity and burnout. After more than a year of public health emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critically important to understand the detrimental and supportive factors of good mental health among the public health workforce.
Description
This is the original submission version (pre-peer review) of the following article: Scales, Sarah E., Elizabeth Patrick, Kahler W. Stone, Kristina W. Kintziger, Meredith A. Jagger, and Jennifer A. Horney. 2021. “A Qualitative Study of the COVID-19 Response Experiences of Public Health Workers in the United States.” Health Security 19 (6): 573–81. https://doi.org/10.1089/hs.2021.0132, which has now been formally published in final form at Health Security at https://doi.org/10.1089/hs.2021.0132. This original submission version of the article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers’ self-archiving terms and conditions. This article will be embargoed until 12/17/2022.
Keywords
COVID-19, public health preparedness/response, epidemic management/response, burnout, mental health
Citation
Scales, Sarah E., Elizabeth Patrick, Kahler W. Stone, Kristina W. Kintziger, Meredith A. Jagger, and Jennifer A. Horney. 2021. “A Qualitative Study of the COVID-19 Response Experiences of Public Health Workers in the United States.” Health Security 19 (6): 573–81. https://doi.org/10.1089/hs.2021.0132.