HEALTH CHALLENGES OF
NURSES WITH EXISTING
HEALTH CONDITIONS AT
CAGAYAN VALLEY MEDICAL
CENTER (CVMC) DURING
COVID-19 PANDEMIC
ANGELICA C. ESTABAYA
ADRIAN NEIL T. GAMIAO
MA. ARIZA COLIN M. MABBORANG
MA. MELIZZAE C. MATEO
CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM AND THE REVIEW
OF RELATED LITERATURE
BACKGROUND OF
THE STUDY
• The COVID-19 outbreak was declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a public
health emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020 and was declared a pandemic on
11 March 2020 (WHO, 2020).
• COVID-19 is thought to be the cause of a dangerous illness that affects people's lives and, in
many cases, threatens the lives of those who are infected. Furthermore, this virus poses an
immediate threat to the functioning of communities all over the world. Such effects include job
loss and its effects on families, changes in the mode of education as attendance and interaction
have shifted to the internet, and so on. Despite these facts, disease mitigation, preparedness, and
responses were implemented in many countries; however, these measures for dealing with the
events of COVID-19 were insufficient. The affected countries requested assistance after
COVID19 severely harmed healthcare systems and hospitals and, in many cases, depleted
medical resources.
BACKGROUND OF
THE STUDY
• Be it in daily routine or disasters, our nurses are responsible for providing holistic care for all
types of patients. Their roles in treating patients with COVID-19 involve triaging patients and
detecting suspected cases with infections; providing essential treatment in an emergency
and dealing with suspected patients with precautions; helping in decontamination and
coordination with other healthcare providers; supplying holistic practices in managing
multiple infections simultaneously; playing critical roles in expanding care services; and
dealing with relatives. In crises, they have more tasks to satisfy patients and their families;
therefore, they must be well equipped with essential knowledge and skills in managing crises
involving clinical treatment, decontamination, isolation, communication, triaging,
psychological support, and palliative care if necessary. However, when they respond to a
crisis such as COVID-19, they face problems that hinder them from caring for the infected
patients.
REVIEW OF RELATED
LITERATURE
• Healthcare workers, who are at the epicenter of the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis, face
challenges in treating COVID-19 patients, including reducing the spread of infection, developing
appropriate short-term strategies, and developing long-term plans. The psychological burden
and overall wellness of healthcare workers has received increased attention, with research
indicating high rates of burnout, psychological stress, and suicide (Santarone, McKenney and
Elkbuli, 2020).
• While working with patients during the pandemic, healthcare professionals are subjected to high
levels of stress. The first intercontinental survey was conducted to investigate HCP perceptions of
the COVID-19 outbreak around the world. A survey with participants from 60 countries was
conducted to assess exposure, perception, and workload. In the survey, 51.4 percent of
participants from 33 countries reported emotional exhaustion as a result of burnout while
working during the pandemic (Azoulay, 2020).
REVIEW OF
RELATED
• LITERATURE
As patient loads continue to rise and coworkers become infected with COVID19, the physical and
psychological well-being of our healthcare workers is being put to the test, contributing significantly
to burnout among healthcare workers (Patti and Schlottman, 2018).
• Healthcare workers suffer from emotional exhaustion, which can lead to medical errors, a lack of
empathy in treating patients, lower productivity, and higher turnover rates (PenwellWaimes, Ward
and Smith, 2018).
• The effects of this increase in workload in the dangerous environment of this pandemic are a decline
in our healthcare workers' mental health (Ayanian, 2020; Lai, Wang and Cai, 2020). According to
Fernandez's (2021) research, many people have expressed concerns and fears about being an
infection risk when they return home, which affects how they feel emotionally. Numerous studies
show that the level of burnout has increased as a result of the new challenges COVID-19 has imposed
on healthcare workers and their work environment.
CONCEPTUAL
FRAMEWORK
IN P U T PROCESS OUTPUT
Nurses with Existing
Health Conditions: • Data Collection • Baseline
through floating of information on the
• Demographic health challenges
survey
Profile (name faced by the nurses
questionnaires
(optional), age, with existing
• Tallying, medical conditions
gender, unit in the
hospital, and presentation and and their risk of
perceived health analysis of Data acquiring
• Interpretation of complications from
status)
Results the virus.
• Specific health
condition of nurses
STATEMENT OF THE
PROBLEM
• Generally, the study seeks to identify and explore the health challenges of nurses with
existing health conditions at Cagayan Valley Medical Center (CVMC) during the COVID- 19
Pandemic.
• Specifically, the study will answer the following questions:
1. What is the profile variable of the respondents in terms of:
1.1 Name (optional)
1.2 Age
1.3 Gender
1.4 Unit in the hospital
1.5 Perceived health status
2. What specific existing health conditions do these nurses have?
3. What are the different defense strategies of the nurses in dealing with
COVID- 19?
4. How do the nurses manage to work with these existing health conditions?
CHAPTER II
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND
PROCEDURES
RESEARCH DESIGN
• This research shall be that of quantitative design. Such research as provided by
Creswell (2003) will rely on employing strategies of inquiry such as survey
questionnaires in collecting relevant data for the research. Furthermore, this study
shall adapt the descriptive research design. As presented by Sieddlecki (2020),
descriptive research studies look at the characteristics of a population; identify
problems that exist within a unit, an organization, or a population; or look at variations
in characteristics or practices between institutions or even countries. Thus, this study
aims to identify and explore the health challenges of nurses with existing health
conditions at Cagayan Valley Medical Center (CVMC) during COVID- 19 pandemic. This
descriptive study merely intends to investigate on the research questions presented.
Subsequently, the researchers shall be open to any discovery that the data collected
from related literatures may prompt the researchers to consider.
PARTICIPANTS/ RESPONDENTS
OF THE STUDY
• The researchers will obtain responses from 101 respondents that was taken from 135
populations of nurses which was calculated using the Raosoft sample size calculator.
This study will utilize the probability sampling technique specifically the cluster
sampling technique. Furthermore, this technique will be done by selecting 17
respondents from each of the 6 nursing units of Cagayan Valley Medical Center (CVMC).
INSTRUMENTATION
• There will be two tools which will be used as instruments in this study. The first tool is a web-
based survey from a previous study entitled, “Worries and concerns among Healthcare Workers
during COVID- 19 Pandemic: A web- based cross- sectional survey” by Sahashi et al. (2021). This
web- based survey is comprised of two parts. The first part will collect the data on the participants’
demographics and characteristics. The second part of the survey is comprised of three sections
which include: (1) their worries and concerns (the degree and content of their worries, their
concern regarding the risk of being infected with SARS- CoV-2, the insufficiency of personal
protective equipment (PPE) in their facility); (2) perceptions regarding the availability and need of
information on COVID-19 (perceived sufficiency of information about COVID-19 symptoms,
treatment, transmission routes, and preventive measures, whether their facility provided clear
information on COVID- 19, how much information about an infectious disease the respondent
would prefer to have); and (3) their behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic (intentional
behavior changes, such as restricted social contact, work avoidance, and their sense of duty).
INSTRUMENTATION
• The second tool is a combination of Stanford Presenteeism Scale 6 which was utilized in a study
conducted by Mdziniso (2016) entitled “Analysis of sickness presenteeism prevalence among
nurses working in selected health facilities in Swaziland”, and the Health Anxiety Inventory (HAI)
which was developed by Salkovskis, Rimes, Warwick, and Clark (2002). This tool is comprised of 3
parts: (Part A) - single question to determine sickness presenteeism; (Part B) - to determine the
likelihood of, and the extent to which a sick nurse was able to complete work, together with the
extent of distractions that he or she experienced; and (Part C) - to determine the predisposing
factors of sickness presenteeism, as well as measure a spectrum of cognitive, affective, and
behavioral symptoms of health anxiety.
• From the abovementioned tools, the researchers were able to ask permission from the authors
with regards to the use of their survey questionnaires. Furthermore, content validity will be done
through the help of research specialists, and revisions will be done according to the
recommendations of the experts to make the content more understandable and appropriate for
the study.
DATA ANALYSIS
• The data gathered will be statistically treated to answer the questions posed in the study.
Statistical tools in the analysis and interpretation of data are the following:
Frequency and Percentage Distribution
- This will be utilized to know the distribution of the participants according to name
(optional), age, gender (male or female), unit in the hospital, perceived health status,
and existing health condition.
Frequency and Rank
- This will be utilized to explore and identify the most selected existing health condition
along with the health challenges it brings to the nurses of Cagayan Valley Medical center
(CVMC) during the COVID- 19 pandemic.
Mean Score
- This will be used to determine the health challenge/s of the nurses with exiting health
conditions of Cagayan Valley Medical Center (CVMC) during the COVID- 19 pandemic.
DATA GATHERING
PROCEDURE
1Ask an approval from the research adviser.
2 Ask a permission from the medical director of CVMC
for the floating of questionnaires.
3 A total of 101 respondents will be required.
DATA GATHERING
PROCEDURE
4
The researchers will explain the purpose of the study
and the respondents will be given enough time to
answer the questionnaire.
5
The data that will be collected will be tallied,
presented, analyzed, and interpreted by the
researchers.
Thank you very much!
