HEALTH WORKERS CONCERNS DURING LETHAL EPIDEMIC: AN EXPERIENCE OF LASSA FEVER OUTBREAKS IN EBONYI STATE

Abstract

This study examined Health Workers concerns during Lethal Epidemic: An experience of Lassa Fever outbreaks in Ebonyi State. Two hundred and eighty four (284) health workers from Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki participated in the study. Health Workers Concerns were measured using Health Workers Concern Scale (HWCS), a self-developed questionnaires that assesses health workers concern during lethal epidemics. The design of the study was cross sectional survey. ANOVA and Bonferoni Post Hoc Test were used to analyze the data. Result showed that poor risk allowances, lack of reward for hard work, lack of Protective equipment, no definitive plan for either a staff who died while trying to contain an outbreak or their relatives, non-availability/poor state of the equipment to work with and poor response strategies to emergencies by government and healthcare institutions etc with weighted mean >3.0 were the major concerns of Health Workers. Findings equally revealed that Health Workers’ areas of specialization have no significant influence on their commitment to duty during outbreak of deadly disease (F = 1.820; P = 0.109 > 0.05). Years of professional experience was found to significantly influence health workers attitude to work (F = 2.193; P = 0.049). Marital status was found not to be a determinant of commitment to duty among healthcare providers at such moment of health crisis (F = 1.705; P = 0.184) while gender was found to have no statistical significant influence on health workers’ commitment to duty during outbreaks of deadly diseases (t = 0.315; P = 0.753 > 0.05). Finally, the study recommends that during health emergencies, the older and much younger health workers be utilized in combating disease outbreaks while less emphasis be paid to those with average/moderate year of experience.