Challenges facing hospital human resources during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study in Iran

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHRH-03-2022-0016
• Published date: 21 July 2022
• Date: 21 July 2022
• Pages: 489-498
• Subject Matter: Health & social care,Vulnerable groups,Inequalities & diverse/minority groups,Sociology,Race & ethnic studies,Minorities,Multiculturalism,Racial identity,Work,economy & organizations
• Author: Hehshmatollah Asadi,Omid Barati,Ali Garavand,Yaser Joyani,Masoumeh Bagheri Kahkesh,Nasim Afsarimanesh,Mehrdad Seifi,Azad Shokri

Challenges facing hospital human

resources during the COVID-19

pandemic: a qualitative study in Iran

Hehshmatollah Asadi, Omid Barati, Ali Garavand, Yaser Joyani,

Masoumeh Bagheri Kahkesh, Nasim Afsarimanesh, Mehrdad Seifi and Azad Shokri

Abstract

Purpose –This study aims to identify health workforce challenges at Iranian hospitals during the

COVID-19pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach –This was a conventional contentanalysis study conducted in 2020.

The populationconsisted of the managers (heads of hospitals,managers and matrons) and staff (nurses,

physicians,etc.) of eligible hospitals. The participantswere selected using purposive sampling, and data

saturationwas achieved after 28 interviews. The data were analyzedin MAXQDA10.

Findings –In total,28 interviews were conducted with 10 womenand 18 men. The challenges of hospital

human resourceswere categorized into five main themes and 15 sub-themes.The main themes were the

shortage of human resources, burnout, the need to acquire new knowledge and skills, the employees’

healthand safety and the reward system.

Originality/value –Identification of challenges faced by human resources is the first step toward

preventing human force shortage and psychological problems in the personnel. Implementing the

recommendations of the present study would assist the proper management of hospitals’ human

resources.

Keywords Health workforce, Hospital, COVID-19

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

The coronavirus outbreak was first detected in December 2019 in China, before being

entitled the COVID-19 pandemic. Its fast global spread caused seriousconcerns and panic

and imposed a huge burden on public health resources, particularly in developing

countries. The world has beeninflicted by the emergence of new infectious agents, such as

COVID-19, and the re-emergence of infectious diseases in new forms, some of which are

resistant to currently available treatments(Mesk

oet al.,2018;Rajnik et al.,2021;Wong

et al.,2015

). All this establishes the seriousness of addressing communicable diseases.

Hence, a preventive and proactive approach should be adopted to guard against and treat

possible infected cases (Sohrabiet al.,2020;Nayyeri et al.,2012).

All communities must strengthen their monitoring capacities and national response against

the COVID-19 pandemic; however,the previous SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome)

epidemic revealed the weakness of health-care systems’ infrastructure in dealingwith such

public health crises. Developing dynamic health infrastructures is a highly effective long-

term strategy for dealing with global health emergencies. Health infrastructure comprises

not only physical foundations such as clinics and hospitals but also human resources and

policies related to health workforce training and distribution. Human resources, according

(Informationabout the

authorscan be found at the

end of this article.)

Received 11 March 2022

Revised 3 June 2022

Accepted 29 June 2022

This study is funded by

Lorestan University of Medical

Sciences. The authors are

sincerely grateful of the

managers and expert staffs in

medical universities for their

assistance through our

discussions and for sharing

their valuable opinions.

Ethics approval and consent to

participate: This study was

approved by the Ethics

Committee of the Lorestan

University of Medical Sciences

under the ethics code No.

IR.LUMS.1399.020.

DOI 10.1108/IJHRH-03-2022-0016 VOL. 15 NO. 5 2 022, pp. 489-498, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2056-4902 jINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN HEALTHCARE jPAGE 489