The perspective and need of health-care workers for COVID-19 on the frontline: A systematic review of qualitative research

Objective: We aimed to synthesize the current qualitative research evidence on health-care workers' perspective and experiences on the frontline, so as to listen to their need and to provide the support, and also to indicate a better management and policy for COVID-19 control and other similar outbreak Methods: We conducted searching systematically in 6 English and Chinese databases including Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, SinoMed, Chinese Academic Conference Papers Database and Chinese Dissertation Database (Wan fang), Chinese Scientific Journal Database, MEDLINE, and EMBASE from December 20th 2019 to 29th May 2020 Data were extracted by two authors independently, and narrative reported the general characteristics and processed by thematic analysis and meta-ethnography CASP (Critical Appraisal Skills Program) was used to assess the methodology quality Results: 25 qualitative studies by in-depth interview with 882 health-care workers found out the perspective, experience, and mental condition of the health-care workers The mental condition of health-care workers was very terrible and even influence their physical condition Lack of clinical experience with infectious diseases is one of the main reasons to make health-care workers have negative feelings such as stress, anxiety, fear Family's support would give a tremendous impact on health-care workers The results demonstrated that sufficient training about infectious disease outbreak and psychological counseling for health-care workers were very important for further health service management And for public health, government should pay more attention to disseminate knowledge of infectious diseases to the public Conclusion: Health-care workers suffered from intense pressure in mental and physical level on the frontline during pandemic and support from family and government will be helpful