Exploring Personal Preparedness and Self-Protective Measures during COVID-19

Frontline health care workers (FHCWs) face a number of safety concerns when providing services during the current COVID-19 pandemic, with a significant number catching the virus themselves. As the pandemic escalates, there is a need to establish an effective, and socially and culturally sensitive, protection system to protect FHCWs. There is a lack of research relating to low and middle-income country FHCWs’ perceived behaviour, including their understanding of personal preparation and self-protective measures in a pandemic. There are particular needs exemplified by working in refugee settings of intense humanitarian crises. There is currently no global information on how COVID-19 will impact refugee settings. FHCWs in these settings face exceptional challenges, working with limited resources, with a population who are fearful of external authority systems, and who have endured many atrocities. This project will explore the perceptions and feelings of a community of FHCWs (including doctors, nurses and community health workers) in Cox’s Bazar, about personal preparation and protective measures for FHCWs during the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information please see: https://www.ed.ac.uk/usher/respire/covid-19/personal-preparedness-health-care-workers