Journal article
The COVID-19 Clinician Cohort (CoCCo) Study: empirically grounded recommendations for forward-facing psychological care of frontline doctors
- Abstract:
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This study aimed to develop empirically grounded recommendations and a coherent model of psychological care derived from the experiences and psychological care needs of COVID-19 frontline doctors, using semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis. Participants were UK frontline doctors specialising in Emergency Medicine, Anaesthetics, or Intensive Care (n = 31) purposively sampled for maximum variation on gender, specialty, ethnicity, and trauma-related distress; most worked in ICU during the pandemic (71%). Four themes were derived: (1) ‘coping strategies’, participants used many, including exercise, mindfulness, and “wait until it gets really bad”; (2) ‘sources of support’, participants valued embedded psychological support, digital services, and informal conversations with colleagues or family, though there was little opportunity; (3) ‘organisational influences on wellbeing’, participants reported a love–hate relationship for concepts like ‘wellbeing’, seen as important but insulting when basic workplace needs were unmet; (4) ‘improving engagement with support’, analysis suggests we must reduce physical and psychological barriers to access and encourage leaders to model psychologically supportive behaviours. Doctors’ frontline COVID-19 working experiences shine a ‘spotlight’ on pre-existing problems such as lack of physical resources and access to psychological care. Empirically grounded recommendations and a model of incremental psychological care are presented for use in clinical services.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 815.5KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.3390/ijerph18189675
Authors
- Publisher:
- MDPI
- Journal:
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health More from this journal
- Volume:
- 18
- Issue:
- 18
- Article number:
- 9675
- Publication date:
- 2021-09-14
- Acceptance date:
- 2021-09-06
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1660-4601
- ISSN:
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1661-7827
- Pmid:
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34574598
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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1196835
- Local pid:
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pubs:1196835
- Deposit date:
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2025-04-17
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Daniels et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2021
- Rights statement:
- Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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