Hospital Readiness and Perceived Health Professional Challenges to Prevent Pandemics in Gedeo Zone, Ethiopia: A Mixed-Method Study

Abstract

Background

Pandemics pose serious threats to health, society, and economy worldwide. Ethiopia has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused millions of deaths and disrupted essential health services. The readiness of health systems and the challenges that health professionals face in delivering pandemic-related services are crucial for preventing and controlling pandemics. However, these aspects have not been adequately assessed in low-income countries like Ethiopia, where poor prevention techniques and challenging work conditions can increase the transmission of diseases and overwhelm the weak healthcare system. This study aimed to assess hospital readiness and health professional challenges to prevent pandemics in Ethiopia.

Methods

A mixed-methods study design was used to collect data from 24 health professionals and four public hospitals using interviews and a checklist which explored the challenges and barriers of health professionals in preventing pandemics and assessed the hospital readiness. Data were analyzed thematically with open code software and descriptively with SPSS software.

Results

The study revealed the alarming gaps in the hospitals’ readiness and the health professionals’ capacity to prevent and control pandemics. Most of the hospitals had insufficient preparedness in terms of administrative activities, infection prevention and control (IPC) activities, emergency room preparedness, outpatient services, and logistics and supplies. The health professionals faced multiple challenges, such as lack of resources, training, personal protection, psychological support, and workload. The most critical challenges were the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and training, which compromised their safety and effectiveness.

Conclusion

The study underscored the need to enhance the hospitals’ readiness and the health professionals’ capacity to prevent and control pandemics and health professionals faced various challenges in preventing and controlling pandemics. These challenges include lack of resources, training, psychological support, and lifestyle changes which may compromise their quality of care, safety, and well-being.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• challenges
• adherence
• pandemic
• prevention

Abbreviations

COVID-19, Corona Virus Disease 2019; HCPs, Health Care Providers; IPC, Infection Prevention and Control; PPE, Personal Protective Equipment’s; SNNPR, South Nation Nationalities and Peoples Region.

Data Sharing Statement

All the required documents are available in the hands of the corresponding author and can be supplied upon request.

Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate

We adhered to the Declaration of Helsinki, which advocates for the potential benefits for the participants. We also followed the WHO’s ethical and safety guidelines for human subject research, as our study on hospital readiness and perceived health professional challenges involved ethical and methodological issues specific to this type of research. The Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Dilla University, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, approved our study ethically, obtaining written informed consent from key informants after informing them about the study’s objectives, procedures, risks, and benefits and accepting both written and verbal consent. The study participants had the right to withdraw from the study at any stage of data collection. Moreover, we obtained written informed consent from the key informants for publication of the study results.

Acknowledgments

We thank the Gedeo Zone health department for their cooperation and permission to conduct this study in the area. We also thank the personnel of Gedeo Zone hospitals who participated in this study for their valuable contributions. Furthermore, we are grateful to Dilla University for giving us this opportunity and providing us with financial support.

Author Contributions

All authors made a significant contribution to the work reported, whether that is in the conception, study design, execution, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, or in all these areas; took part in drafting, revising or critically reviewing the article; gave final approval of the version to be published; have agreed on the journal to which the article has been submitted; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors declare that they have no competing interests in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This study received funding from Dilla University.