Posted July 12, 2006
Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare: News
Study Finds Many Healthcare Professionals Unprepared
for Flu Pandemic
Nearly half of public health workers surveyed would not go to work during an influenza pandemic. The results of a survey of health workers in Maryland, USA, published in the open access journal BMC Public Health reveal that the staff's perceived importance of their role in the response to a pandemic is the most important factor influencing their willingness to come to work during a pandemic. This is lowest among technical or support staff. Other factors influencing their decision are their perceived ability to communicate the risks clearly and their knowledge of the possible impacts of a pandemic. These results highlight the need for increased training and coaching for all health workers, but most importantly non-clinical healthcare staff, emphasizing the importance of their role and their presence at work during an influenza pandemic.
Dr. Ran Balicer from the Department of Epidemiology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and colleagues from the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health Preparedness, Baltimore, sent questionnaires to all the staff in three health centers in Maryland. In total, 308 staff responded.
Balicer et al.'s results show that over 40 percent of respondents would not go to work during an influenza pandemic and that 66 percent of respondents felt that they would put themselves at risk if they came to work during a pandemic. Willingness to report to work was most significantly associated with the perceived importance of one's role in the response. Less than one third of respondents felt that they would have an important role in the response to an influenza pandemic, but among this group, made mostly of clinicians, 86.8 percent would be willing to come to work.
Most (83 percent) of the respondents felt that they would benefit from additional training to prepare them to the eventuality of a pandemic.
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