COVID-19 related challenges faced by Medical Laboratory Staff: A Review of Literature

Abstract

Laboratory testing on the confirmation of COVID-19 results is an essential component and without the expertise of trained laboratory technicians this is not possible. The aim of this study was to review the impacts of COVID-19 on medical laboratory staff. The literature search was done using Medline, Embase, Scopus, and Proquest databases, and relevant keywords were applied to find studies which have been conducted in the field of Medical Laboratory Science specifically looking at the impacts on staff caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. All the studies pertaining to the topic published in 2020 and 2021 in English language were reviewed and the main themes were identified. The results showed that impacts of COVID-19 were felt by the staff, as they were pushed to their limits causing stress and burnout. Apart from this laboratory staff were faced with issues such as; shortage in terms of human resources, consumables, testing kits and reagents. This was an added factor to delays in testing and disruption to the testing Turnaround time (TATs) and also contributed to the stress and burnout of staff. Laboratory professionals and other health care staffs were pushed to the limits to ensure patient care was not affected and each patient was attended too without delay. Laboratory personnel’s were pushed to their limits to ensure that test results were given on time.