SESSION SIX PART II: SUBMIT YOUR DISCUSSION OF YOUR RESULTS AND FINDINGS AND YOUR CONCLUSIONS. Students will discuss the meaning of their key results as it relates to previous literature and write a c
Running Head: THE IMPACT THAT THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC HAS HAD ON
PRIMARY HEALTHCARE AROUND THE U.S. IS CONSIDERABLE
Research Topic:
The impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on primary health care around the U.S. is considerable
Vanessa Garcia
St. Joseph’s College
Topic
The impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on primary healthcare around the world is considerable. The new coronavirus is a highly destructive because of the fact that it has managed to affect the health of people in a large number of ways. The pandemic has dramatically reduced access to primary healthcare in the majority of companies around the world including developed countries such as the United States and Australia (Halcomb 559). The poor access to healthcare services can lead to a decrease in the quality of life for millions of people throughout the world. In its turn, the decreased quality of life will impact economic as well as social development in a negative way leading to the spread of complex diseases. The COVID 19 pandemic has presented an international health crisis of a scope not seen in our lifetime. While much attention has been paid to health workers in critical care and acute areas, nurses working outside of hospitals are also significantly affected. This study sought to investigate the experience of nurses working in Australian primary healthcare during the COVID 19 pandemic. In particular, it sought to understand the implications on their employment status, role, and access to personal protective equipment. (Halcomb, 559). Healthcare administrators have been challenged throughout this entire COVID 19 pandemic. Hospital administrators have to deal with equipment shortages for patients and healthcare workers, staffing shortages, and also having to furlough staff and slashing benefits.
Problem Statement
Coronavirus is now the talk of the year and due to the pandemic, which has taken the lives of over 207,000, thousand people. Many people think that the coronavirus was man-made and others think that it originated from Wuhan, China. Scientists first identified a human coronavirus in 1965. It caused a common cold. Later that decade, researchers found a group of similar human and animal viruses and named them after their crown-like appearance. (WebMD,2020). This theory cannot be explained, and scientists and professionals are still trying to come up a vaccine for this virus. People have failed to notice that this pandemic is not going anywhere anytime soon. If this continues, and it is believed that Coronavirus was man-made, we’ll never understand the larger question, which is why? By rethinking our approach and following the CDC guidelines we can potentially fix the issue and get rid of Coronavirus once and for all. I would like to find out more information on the following questions:
What are the healthcare issues created by the COVID-19 pandemic?
What is being done to address these issues?
What is the level of effectiveness of the current approaches to addressing the problem?
What are the consequences in case the issues are not properly addressed for both patients and healthcare organizations?
How can the COVID-19 pandemic transform the process of providing primary healthcare in the United States?
Literature Review
Covid 19; Hospital admission
Hospital admission during the COVID-19 pandemic were at its all time high. The 2019–2020 pandemic Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has inundated hospital systems globally, as they prepare to accommodate surge of patients requiring advanced levels of care. (Gupta, Federman,2020). Pandemic preparedness has not been this urgently and widely needed in the last several decades. According to epidemiologic predictions, the peak of this pandemic has still not been reached, and hospitals everywhere need to ensure readiness to care for more patients than they usually do, and safety for healthcare workers who strive to save lives. We share our hospital-wide rapid preparedness and response to COVID-19 to help provide information to other healthcare systems globally. (Gupta, Federman, 2020). Within three months from the first diagnosed case of COVID-19 in the U.S.A. in late January 2020, the number of SARS-CoV2-infected individuals in the U.S.A. is close to a million, and the number of casualties has surpassed 45,000 [1]. Globally, SARS-CoV2 has infected millions, with an overall case fatality rate of >6.5% [1]. As rapid testing becomes more readily available in the next few weeks, it is expected that many more cases will be diagnosed, and many of them would need hospitalization for care. (Gupta & Federman, 2020).
COVID-19; Disruptive affects and improvements.
The COVID-19 pandemic has seen health and medical research promoted as countries establish resilient health systems and rapidly responsive prevention, detection, and treatment methods. However, the pandemic will probably negatively affect the capacity and outcomes of the health and medical research sector itself. Research Australia is a national alliance of health and medical research stakeholders. In May, 2020, all members on Research Australia's contact list were invited to participate in, and share with colleagues, a 10 min online survey. The questionnaire contained 52 questions about research and employment and perceptions of the effect of the pandemic on researchers' activities (Deakin Human Research Ethics Committee project number HEAG-H-71_2020). (Gupta, Federman, 2020). Data were analyzed with the use of descriptive statistics and logistic regression. 1212 members responded, with most of the responses from researchers in the university sector (79·4%), who are early in their career (41·7%), working full time (70·9%), and in permanent positions (38·1%; appendix). Overall, 79·6% of participants indicated that their research was affected by the pandemic, with a further 9·7% of participants indicating that it was likely to be affected in the future. (Peeters, 2002). Although COVID 19 has spread over 200 countries, and has taken the lives of over 300,000 people, lets look at the facts. Human crisis like COVID-19 pandemic has also offered some unique opportunities for the healthcare sector. It has allowed us to revisit the healthcare delivery. Rationalizing and optimizing the available resources during such crisis are some of the most import lessons learnt from this crisis. Although, there has been severe disruption in the healthcare delivery during this time globally, but several positives have also come out of it viz., the effective use of telemedicine, importance of personal hygiene, and the importance of infection control. (Brunier,2020). The virtual means of teaching, educating, and sharing knowledge has now become popular and acceptable. The research and publications have also seen a significant rise during these difficult times.
COVID 19; Physical and mental impacts
The physical and mental impacts COVID-19 had on essential workers is nothing short of what is called a disaster. A systematic literature search was conducted using two databases: PubMed and Google Scholar. We found 154 studies, and out of which 10 met our criteria. We collected information on the date of publication, first author’s country, the title of the article, study design, study population, intervention and outcome, and key findings, and divided all research articles into two domains: physical and mental health impact. (Shaukat, 2020). Our findings identified the following risk factors for COVID-19-related health impact: working in a high-risk department, diagnosed family member, inadequate hand hygiene, suboptimal hand hygiene before and after contact with patients, improper PPE use, close contact with patients (≥ 12 times/day), long daily contact hours (≥ 15 h), and unprotected exposure. (Shaukat, 2020). The most common symptoms identified amongst HCWs were fever (85%), cough (70%), and weakness (70%). Prolonged PPE usage led to cutaneous manifestations and skin damage (97%), with the nasal bridge (83%) most commonly affected site. HCWs experienced high levels of depression, anxiety, insomnia, and distress. Female HCWs and nurses were disproportionately affected. (Shaukat, 2020) The frontline healthcare workers are at risk of physical and mental consequences directly as the result of providing care to patients with COVID-19. Even though there are few intervention studies, early data suggest implementation strategies to reduce the chances of infections, shorter shift lengths, and mechanisms for mental health support could reduce the morbidity and mortality amongst HCWs. (Shaukat, 2020).
Research Method
This study will focus on fixed research by quantitative design by survey. According to Robson; “Survey involves collecting data from groups of participants on a range of variables typically using questionnaires”, (Robson, 2014, p. 30). This study will research how COVID 19 has impacted primary healthcare around the U.S. In this study it will incorporate data from twenty participants that will be obtained through quantitative design by survey. Collective data will be analyzed and shared. This study will use explanation design in which questions will be derived from data by survey. Quantitative research is based on collective data that can be quantified by numbers or can be converted into numbers, (Robson, 2014, p. 109). Quantitative designs can access a larger population by survey method and is used to verify if a hypothesis is correct. Quantitative designs can also change and manipulate data based on what is being studied. The hypothesis that will be proven during this study is; how Coronavirus has impacted healthcare around the U.S., and how healthcare administrators have been affected.
References
Bhargava, H. (2020, April 15). Coronavirus History: How did coronavirus start? Retrieved
October 01, 2020, from https://www.webmd.com/lung/coronavirus-history
Chen, Shu-ching, Lai, Yeur-Hur and Shiow-Luan Tsay. "Nursing Perspectives on the Impacts of Covid 19." The Journal of Nursing Research 28.3 (2020): 85.
David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P., Elizabeth J. Fowler, Ph.D., J.D., Melinda Abrams, M.S., and Sara R. Collins, Ph.D. "Covid-19-Implications for Health Care System." The New England Journal of Medicine 383 (2020): 1483-1488.
Donthu, Naveen and Anders Gustafsson. "Effects of COVID-19 on business and research." Journal of Business Research 17 (2020): 284-289.
Grégoire Mercier, Caroline Arquizan, Francois Roubille. "Understanding the effects of Covid 19 on Health care and systems." The Lancet Public Health 5.10 (2020): 524.
Gupta, Shaili and Daniel G. Federman. "Hospital preparedness for COVID-19 pandemic: experience from department of medicine at Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System." Taylor & Francis Public Health Emergency Collection 132.6 (2020): 489-494.
Halcomb, Elizabeth, et al. "The Experiences of Primary Healthcare Nurses During the
COVID‐19 Pandemic in Australia." Journal of Nursing Scholarship 52.5 (2020):
553-563.
Iyengar, Karthikeyan, et al. "Learning opportunities from COVID-19 and future effects on health care system." Elsevier Public Health Emergency Collection 14.5 (2020): 943-946.
Peeters, Anna, et al. "Covid-19's impact on Australia's health research workforce." The Lancet Regional Health 396.10249 (2020): 461.
Peiffer-Smadja, N., et al. "Challenges and issues about organizing a hospital to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak: experience from a French reference centre." Elsevier Public Health Emergency Collection 26.6 (2020): 669-672.
Robson, C. (2014). How to do a research project: a guide for undergraduate students. Chichester:
John Wiley & Sons.
Shaukat, Natasha, Daniyal Mansoor Ali and Junaid Razzak. "Physical and mental health impacts of COVID-19 on healthcare workers: a scoping review." International Journal of Emergency Medicine 13.40 (2020).
Tuttle, Katherine R. "Impact of the Covid 19 pandemic on clinical research." Nature Reviews Nephrology 16 (2020): 562-564.