Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the worst global nightmares in the past decade for both healthcare workers and general public. The initial focus has been on the lifesaving and biomedical aspects, but COVID-19 has rapidly established itself as an illness that negatively impacts the psychosocial health of all affected individuals. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of survivors of COVID-19 disease with intent to identify gaps within the healthcare system in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and therefore improve the patient care. A phenomenological approach was used and a purposive sampling technique employed to select 15 participants at Hwange Colliery hospital for the study. All the participants were individuals aged between 19 and 55 years who had recovered from COVID-19 disease. Participants were either Hwange Colliery Company Limited employees or dependents and resident of Hwange Colliery concession area. Analysis of data was done during data collection using the Braun and Clarke (2006) thematic analysis. Three themes with eleven subthemes emerged from data and these were: awareness of COVID-19 disease; sources of information and trust of sources of information, causes and origins of the COVID-19, health seeking; physical manifestations, specimen collection and experience, treatment and home remedies, interaction with healthcare workers, psychosocial dimension; isolation and experiences, fears and concerns, family and friends support, religious, job security. The study revealed the lived experiences of survivors of COVID-19 disease. The survivors’ fear and coping mechanisms were made plain. The age of participants ranged from 19 years to 55 years with a mean age of 36.3 and a standard deviation of 5.1
Highlights
IntroductionThere has been a continuous rapid spread of COVID-19 worldwide
Like veld fire, there has been a continuous rapid spread of COVID-19 worldwide
The initial focus of research has been on the lifesaving and biomedical aspects, but COVID-19 has rapidly established itself as an illness that negatively impacts the psychosocial health of all affected individuals [4]
Summary
There has been a continuous rapid spread of COVID-19 worldwide. The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the worst nightmares in the past decade for both healthcare workers and the general public. A number of lessons have been drawn by countries from this pandemic. COVID-19 is a severe blow to the healthcare system of the entire world and has affected millions of people across the world [2]. COVID-19 is associated with a very high rate of infectivity, which has led to a high level of fear and anxiety of getting infected. There has been less focus on the lived experiences of COVID-19 Survivors, since this is an emerging disease [3]
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