Purpose

This paper aims to explore 15 UK adult social care workers’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper’s 15 open-ended interviews with adult social care workers are complemented by digital ethnography in COVID-19 social media forums. This data set is taken from a global mixed-methods study, involving over 2,000 participants from 59 different countries.

Findings

Workers reported a lack of planning, guidance and basic provisions including personal protective equipment. Work intensification brought stress, workload pressure and mental health problems. Family difficulties and challenges of living through the pandemic, often related to government restrictions, intensified these working conditions with precarious living arrangements. The workers also relayed a myriad of challenges for their residents in which, the circumstances appear to have exacerbated dementia and general health problems including dehydration, delirium and loneliness. Whilst COVID-19 was seen as partially responsible for resident deaths, the sudden disruptions to daily life and prohibitions on family visits were identified as additional contributing factors in rapid and sudden decline.

Research limitations/implications

Whilst the paper’s sample cohort is small, given the significance of COVID-19 at this present time the findings shed important light on the care home experience as well as act as a baseline for future study.

Social implications

Care homes bore the brunt of illness and death during the first and second COVID-19 waves in the UK, and many of the problems identified here have still yet to be actioned by the government. As people approach the summer months, an urgent review is required of what happened in care homes and this paper could act as some part of that evidence gathering.

Originality/value

This paper offers revealing insights from frontline care home workers and thus provides an empirical snapshot during this unique phase in recent history. It also builds upon the preliminary/emerging qualitative research evidence on how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted care homes, care workers and the residents.

中文翻译：

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COVID时代的工作、生活和死亡：英国一线成人社会护理工作者的观点

目的

本文旨在探讨 15 位英国成年社会护理工作者在 COVID-19 大流行期间的经历。

设计/方法/方法

本文对成人社会护理工作者的 15 次开放式访谈得到了 COVID-19 社交媒体论坛中的数字民族志的补充。该数据集来自一项全球混合方法研究，涉及来自 59 个不同国家的 2,000 多名参与者。

发现

工人报告说缺乏规划、指导和基本规定，包括个人防护设备。工作集约化带来了压力、工作量压力和心理健康问题。在大流行中生活的家庭困难和挑战（通常与政府限制有关）加剧了这些工作条件和不稳定的生活安排。工人们还为他们的居民传达了无数挑战，其中的情况似乎加剧了痴呆症和一般健康问题，包括脱水、谵妄和孤独。虽然 COVID-19 被认为是居民死亡的部分原因，但日常生活的突然中断和家庭探访的禁令被认为是导致快速和突然下降的额外因素。

研究限制/影响

虽然该论文的样本队列很小，但鉴于目前 COVID-19 的重要性，这些发现为养老院体验提供了重要启示，并作为未来研究的基线。

社会影响

在英国的第一波和第二波 COVID-19 浪潮中，养老院首当其冲，其中发现的许多问题仍有待政府采取行动。随着人们接近夏季，需要对养老院发生的事情进行紧急审查，本文可以作为证据收集的一部分。

原创性/价值

本文提供了一线护理院工作人员的深刻见解，从而提供了近代历史上这个独特阶段的经验快照。它还建立在关于 COVID-19 大流行如何影响疗养院、护理工作者和居民的初步/新兴定性研究证据的基础上。