About this ebook
The book draws on over 9,000 responses to a survey examining the psychological, occupational, and social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on frontline health workers. Survey participants came from all areas of the health sector, from intensive care doctors to hospital cleaners to aged care nurses, and from large metropolitan hospitals to rural primary care practices. The authors organise these free-text responses thematically, creating a shared narrative of health workers experiences. Each chapter is prefaced by a brief commentary that provides context and introduces the the themes that emerged from the survey.
This book offers a unique historical record of the experiences of thousands of healthcare workers at the height of the second wave of the pandemic and will be of great interest to anyone interested in the experiences of healthcare workers, and the psychological, organisational, healthcare policy, and social challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
About the author
Marie Bismark is a public health physician, health lawyer and Associate Professor in the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne, Australia. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she provided mental health care to patients in the emergency department, intensive care unit, and on the COVID-19 ward of The Royal Melbourne Hospital. She also leads a research team at the University of Melbourne, focused on the interface between patient safety, clinician wellbeing, and health regulation.
Karen Willis is Professor of Public Health at Victoria University, Australia. She is a health sociologist and qualitative methodologist. She co-led the Australian Frontline Health Worker Study and is currently co-leading the Future-Proofing the Frontline project to develop interventions to support health workers during times of crisis. Her previous research has examined how patients and professionals navigate the healthcare system, self-management of chronic conditions, and the experience of loneliness for people with chronic conditions. She is co-editor of The Covid-19 Crisis: Social Perspectives (Routledge, 2021) and co-editor of Navigating Private and Public Healthcare: Experiences of Patients, Doctors and Policy-Makers (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).
Sophie Lewis is Senior Lecturer in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney, Australia. She has an inter-disciplinary background in sociology and public health and her research uses innovative qualitative methods to explore the experience of living with long-term conditions. Her current research examines how people with chronic illnesses experience loneliness, self-management support in patient/clinician interactions, end of life care decision-making, and the experiences of living with advanced cancer.
Natasha Smallwood is an Associate Professor in the Central Clinical School at Monash University, Australia, Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and Consultant Respiratory Physician at Alfred Health. Her research interests include symptom management, supporting patients with severe lung diseases, gender equity and clinician wellbeing. She co-led the Australian Frontline Health Worker Study and is currently co-leading the Future-Proofing the Frontline project to develop interventions to support health workers during times of crisis.
