Name of health worker: Nakitto Barbara
Occupation: Nurse
Masaka Regional Referral Hospital
Utilizing mobile phones to extend psychological care to COVID-19
Knowing that COVID-19 was a new disease and life-threatening, I didn’t feel safe at all. Despite the proper personal protective equipment (PPE) I had on, this fear caused a lot of anxiety in me whenever I entered a COVID-19 unit. Overall, this affected my nursing care because the nurse-patient relationship was almost impossible.
The patients had a lot of questions going through their minds and to address their issues, we needed more time with them to calm their worries whilst adhering to the Standard Operating Procedures. available, one couldn’t give quality service and communicate effectively. We were unable to avail holistic care to address patients’ worries, anxiety brought on by the effects of COVID-19 because we had limited time to stay with them. For example, some psychosocial problems need good time with the patient but with COVID-19, you are not allowed to stay with the patient for a very long time. Some have spiritual problems that go unaddressed because there is no expertise.
To best handle this challenge of limited time with the COVID-19 patients, my colleagues and I discussed and decided to use the phones to talk at length with our patients while out of the ward. This seemed to greatly help. Our patients felt that they are normal though in constant denial because majority of them are asymptomatic. Therefore my recommendation is that we should manage these patients from their homes as they continue to coordinate their unfinished businesses.