Adaptation Process of U.S Healthcare Workers During COVID-19: Policies, Practices, and Programs

Abstract

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Healthcare workers have remained a significant part of communities across the world for centuries and have continued to provide care for people in times of need. Once the Coronavirus took over the world and changed the daily lives of millions of individuals, it was healthcare workers who were at the forefront taking care of an overflow of ill patients while exposing themselves to the virus. This study focuses primarily on healthcare workers in the United States during the course of COVID-19 and the interviews were conducted in 2022. To conduct this research the Culture Shock U-Curve was adopted to analyze how participants adapted to the changes and challenges of the virus in their personal and professional wellbeing at the individual and family level. This includes healthcare workers’ mental, physical, and socioeconomic wellbeing. The study investigates how policies, practices, and programs were used to support healthcare workers. The researcher used qualitative method, document review, and conducted interviews with healthcare workers to accumulate significant data. To support the credibility of this study the researcher used peer assessment, an in-depth literature review, and thick description. The researcher found that healthcare workers were likely to feel stressed, fearful, burnout, and overwhelmed during the beginning of the pandemic due to several changes they were experiencing rapidly. The researcher also found that there were many different policies, practices, and programs that the government and healthcare facilities implicated to curb the spread of COVID-19, and for the safety of healthcare workers. For instance, support programs were made available and additional steps were taken to keep healthcare workers safe, such as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and limiting the visitation of family members.