Coping Strategies Used by Older Adults to Deal with Contact Isolation in the Hospital during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Jogé Boumans,Andrea D Rozema,Vera P Van Druten,Aukelien Scheffelaar,Tessel H G Hendriksen,Lenny M W Nahar-Van Venrooij

doi:10.3390/ijerph18147317

Jogé Boumans, Andrea D Rozema + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18147317

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Abstract

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many older adults have experienced contact isolation in a hospital setting which leads to separation from relatives, loss of freedom, and uncertainty regarding disease status. The objective of this study was to explore how older adults (55+) cope with contact isolation in a hospital setting during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to improve their physical and psychological wellbeing. The realist evaluation approach was used to formulate initial program theories on coping strategies used by (older) adults in an isolation setting. Twenty-one semi-structured interviews with older patients (n = 21) were analysed. This study revealed that both emotion-focused coping strategies as well as problem-focused coping strategies were used by older adults during contact isolation. The study also uncovered some new specific coping strategies. The results have useful implications for hospital staff seeking to improve the wellbeing of older adults in contact isolation in hospitals. Problem-focused coping strategies could be stimulated through staff performing care in a person-centred way. Trust in staff, as part of emotion-focused coping strategies, could be stimulated by improving the relationship between patients and staff.

Highlights

Contact isolation is often an unpleasant experience
The intervention was the contact isolation setting, the context was the hospital setting during a pandemic, the mechanisms were the coping strategies used by older adults, and the outcome was the influence of the use of coping strategies on the physical and psychological wellbeing of older adults
The results section starts with the description of information on the setting and respondents, presented in Table 2 This table provides an overview of the two settings which were studied, the Suspected COVID-19 Ward and the Cohort COVID-19 Ward

Summary

Introduction

Contact isolation is often an unpleasant experience. Patients in contact isolation are more likely to develop symptoms of depression and have longer lengths of stay than non-isolated patients [5,6]. When compared with non-isolated patients, physicians and nurses have been shown to have fewer direct interactions and perform fewer examinations on isolated patients [7,8,9]. Patients in contact isolation have reported a poor understanding of the reasons and procedures for contact isolation and a greater level of dissatisfaction with their care as a result [10,11]. In the form of behavioural and cognitive efforts, are used by individuals to deal with a variety of stressful situations in order to lower the levels of stress [12,13,14]

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