Health Care Workers' Attitudes Toward Patients With COVID-19

Joseph Ottolenghi; Rodney A McLaren Jr; Cecilia Bahamon; Mudar Dalloul; Sandra McCalla; Howard Minkoff

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofab375

Health Care Workers' Attitudes Toward Patients With COVID-19

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2021 Jul 15;8(8):ofab375. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofab375. eCollection 2021 Aug.

Authors

Joseph Ottolenghi¹, Rodney A McLaren Jr², Cecilia Bahamon³, Mudar Dalloul³, Sandra McCalla², Howard Minkoff^{2

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA.
² Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA.
³ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA.
⁴ School of Public Health at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, Brooklyn, New York, USA.

Abstract

Background: Early in the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, before the routine availability and/or use of personal protective equipment, health care workers were understandably concerned. Our aim was to explore health care workers' attitudes toward patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 at the time of the nation's first surge in 2 highly affected hospitals in New York.

Methods: We performed a cross-sectional, self-administered survey study of health care workers. The survey consisted of 17 multiple-choice questions including demographic information, ethics, and willingness to care for patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Subgroup analyses were performed using the Fisher exact test.

Results: Of 340 health care workers approached, 338 (99.4%) consented to the survey; 163 (48.7%) were registered nurses and 160 (48.3%) lived with children. While 326 (97.3%) workers were concerned about putting their family/coworkers at risk of infection after caring for a patient with SARS-CoV-2, only 30 (8.9%) were unwilling to treat a patient with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Registered nurses were more likely than other health care workers to think it was ethical to refuse care for SARS-CoV-2-infected patients, worried more often about contracting infection, and felt that SARS-CoV-2 added to their stress level (P = .009, P = .018, P < .001, respectively). A similar contrast was seen when comparing workers who live with children with those who did not.

Conclusions: Levels of stress and concern were extremely high. In spite of that, the overwhelming majority of workers were willing to treat patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Registered nurses and health care workers who live with children were more likely to think it is ethical to refuse care for SARS-CoV-2-infected patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2 infection; attitudes; children; ethics; health care providers; nurses.