Abstract
The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a highly contagious virus that is transmittable through either respiratory droplets or by contact with surfaces that have been contaminated. Health Care Workers (HCW) especially diagnostic radiographers are at greater risk of contracting COVID-19 as they spend extended hours near infected patients. There has been a noted shortage and inadequacy of PPE in some healthcare facilities within South Africa, the cause of the lack of PPE has been identified due to a decline in profit margins in the private sector and corruption claims in the PPE procurement processes in the public sector.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa, radiographers experiences with PPE had not yet been explored. Therefore, the aim of this research study was to understand the experiences of Radiographers with PPE during the COVID-19 pandemic in Gauteng, South Africa. The two objectives created to achieve the aim were to explore radiographers’ experiences of PPE during the COVID-19 pandemic and describe the radiographers’ experiences of PPE during the COVID-19 pandemic in Gauteng, South Africa.
A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive approach was utilized with the use of semi-structured interviews until data was saturated. Purposeful sampling was used to select 12 diagnostic radiographers in Gauteng to participate in the study. In order to manage and identify the codes and themes, ATLAS.ti 8 was used to analyse the research data.
The three themes that emerged from the categories were radiographers’ experiences with PPE supplied during COVID-19, workplace practices and procedures for PPE during COVID-19 and emotional challenges faced during the PPE shortage. These findings suggest that diagnostic radiographers in Gauteng as a whole had a negative experience with PPE during COVID-19. The diagnostic radiographers acknowledged the short supply of PPE not only globally but issued faced with local distribution of PPE. Findings also revealed a gap in sterilisation techniques and in turn its effectiveness, leaving diagnostic radiographers uncertain and afraid to reuse their
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PPE. Diagnostic radiographers raised concerns about the impact on their mental and emotional health throughout the pandemic, lack of psychological support and social isolation.
In conclusion, recommendations were made and provided in order to address the issues faced with PPE supplied to radiographers in Gauteng, South Africa. These recommendations include: better procurement methods, stricter distributions and preservations of PPE, providing necessary training on how to use PPE, quality control checks in place for PPE, research needs to be conducted on the integrity of PPE after sterilisation processes, visuals representations put into place for staff to familiarize themselves with the steps taken to correct use the PPE, monitoring of the staffs emotional stress levels, as well as workshops implemented on how to deal with the stress, anxiety and fear of working through a pandemic.