Self-reflection of Medical Personnel of Children’s Infectious Hospital on Work during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The study demonstrates the results of qualitative analysis on self-reflection of children's infectious hospital staff towards work in COVID-19 situation. The study is focused on the main topics: 1) staff reflections on organizational changes in work, 2) risk analysis COVID-19, 3) meta reflective thinking about their own professional future. Data were obtained through semi-structured interviews with pediatric hospital staff. Doctors and nurses participated in the study. The results obtained reflect the peculiarities of subjective perception of the medical staff's performance in the “red zone”, where some doctors and nurses worked for up to 6 and 8 months. We looked at the subjective perception of medical staff work in the red area. We analysed the psycho-emotional state of specialists in the changed working conditions. Then, we revealed the differences in the discrepancy’s context in the COVID-19’s assessment-risk in external sources and the specialists’ own experience of disease monitoring in the children’s hospital. These differences changed the attitude of doctors and nurses to their own safety. The analysis of the confrontation of medical workers with situations of discrimination was one aspect of self-reflection. Also, we considered meta-reflections on changes in perception of oneself as a professional and one’s own profession in the conditions of COVID-19. In conclusion, doctors and nurses reflected on their roles as specialists, from performing heroic feats to fatalistic acceptance of inevitability during COVID-19. The cognitive dissonance between information from the media and real life manifestations of COVID-19 in children led to ambiguous self-assessments concerning the doctors’ own safety and risk of infection. It was the perception of oneself as a risk for others. Finally, three reflexive models express the attitude towards oneself and one’s own profession: 1) preservation of the existing attitude towards the profession, 2) perception of oneself and one’s own profession in a more positive way; 3) a fundamental rethinking of their professional future.