Lessons from the frontline: Documenting the experiences of Pacific emergency care clinicians responding to the COVID-19 pandemic

Megan Cox; Georgina Phillips; Rob Mitchell; Lisa-Maree Herron; Sarah Körver; Deepak Sharma; Claire E Brolan; Mangu Kendino; Osea K Masilaca; Gerard O'Reilly; Penisimani Poloniati; Berlin Kafoa

doi:10.1016/j.lanwpc.2022.100517

Lessons from the frontline: Documenting the experiences of Pacific emergency care clinicians responding to the COVID-19 pandemic

Lancet Reg Health West Pac. 2022 Aug:25:100517. doi: 10.1016/j.lanwpc.2022.100517. Epub 2022 Jul 7.

Authors

Megan Cox^{1

2

3}, Georgina Phillips^{4

5}, Rob Mitchell^{4

6}, Lisa-Maree Herron⁷, Sarah Körver⁴, Deepak Sharma⁸, Claire E Brolan^{7

9}, Mangu Kendino¹⁰, Osea K Masilaca¹¹, Gerard O'Reilly^{4

6}, Penisimani Poloniati¹², Berlin Kafoa¹³

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Australia.
² The Sutherland Hospital, NSW, Australia.
³ NSW Ambulance, Sydney, Australia.
⁴ School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
⁵ Emergency Department, St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
⁶ Emergency & Trauma Centre, Alfred Health, Australia.
⁷ School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
⁸ Emergency Department, Colonial War Memorial Hospital, Suva, Fiji.
⁹ Centre for Policy Futures, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
¹⁰ Port Moresby General Hospital, Papua New Guinea.
¹¹ Registered Nurse, Suva, Fiji.
¹² Emergency Department, Vaiola Hospital, Nuku'alofa, Tonga.
¹³ Public Health Division, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Suva, Fiji.

Abstract

Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) across the Pacific region have been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and emergency care (EC) clinicians have been on the frontline of response efforts. Their responsibilities have extended from triage and clinical management of patients with COVID-19 to health system leadership and coordination. This has exposed EC clinicians to a range of ethical and operational challenges.This paper describes the context and methodology of a rapid, collaborative, qualitative research project that explored the experiences of EC clinicians in Pacific LMICs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted in three phases, with data obtained from online regional EC support forums, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. A phenomenological approach was adopted, incorporating a hybrid inductive and deductive thematic analysis. Research findings, reported in other manuscripts in this collection, will inform multi-sectoral efforts to improve health system preparedness for future public health emergencies.

Funding: Epidemic Ethics/World Health Organization (WHO) initiative, supported by Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office/Wellcome Grant 214711/Z/18/Z (Phases 1 and 2A) and an Australasian College for Emergency Medicine Foundation International Development Fund Grant.

Keywords: COVID-19; Emergency care; Ethics; Lessons learnt; Pacific; Pandemic; Qualitative research.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

WT_/Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom