Impact of COVID-19 on Domiciliary Care Workers in Wales: The OSCAR Qualitative Study, 2021

This qualitative sub-study was embedded in the broader data linkage OSCAR study which aimed to assess the health impact of working during the COVID-19 pandemic upon domiciliary care workers (DCWs) in Wales, UK. The qualitative study aimed to explore care worker experiences during the pandemic. We explored factors that may have varied the risk of exposure to COVID-19 as well as adverse health and wellbeing outcomes. Registered DCWs working in Wales were invited to take part in a semi-structured telephone interview. In total, 24 DCWs were interviewed between February and July 2021. Emergent themes were identified through a process of inductive analysis using thematic coding. Several emergent themes related to risk of exposure to COVID-19. General changes to the role of the DCW during the course of the pandemic were identified. Practical challenges for DCWs in the workplace were also reported. These included reports of staff shortages, clients and families not following safety procedures, initial shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), problems with standard use PPE, client difficulty with PPE and the management of rapid antigen testing. A general lack of government/employer preparation for a pandemic was described. This included the reorganisation of staff clients and services, sub-optimal information for many DCWs, COVID-19 training and the need for improved practical instruction and limited official standard risk assessments specifically for DCWs. Pressures to attend work and DCW’s perception of COVID-19 risk and vaccination were reported.