Abstract
BackgroundThe first wave of COVID-19 infections caused disturbances in all aspects of personal and professional lives. The aim of this study was to explore the ways in which that first wave of novel coronavirus infections resulted in uncertainties, as experienced by members of the oral health care workforce in British Columbia, Canada.MethodsThis qualitative inquiry purposefully recruited frontline oral health care workers, including dentists, dental hygienists, certified dental assistants, and administrative staff, via remote semi-structured interviews between April 20 and May 4, 2020. Coding, categories, and themes were inductively assigned.ResultsA total of 45 interviews, lasting between 39 and 74 minutes each, were conducted involving 18 dentists (6 females), 12 dental hygienists (11 females), 6 certified dental assistants (all females), and 9 administrators/front-desk staff (7 females). Fifty-one hours of audio recordings and more than 650 single-spaced pages of transcripts were produced. Five main themes emerged pertaining to uncertainties surrounding COVID-19, patient care, personal lives and infectiousness, concern for the future, and variations among different pandemics. Certitudes were less evident, but surfaced mostly when considering a potential new normal resulting from the pandemic.ConclusionParticipants indicated that the uncertainties they felt were dependent upon what is known, and unknown, about the pandemic and the provision of oral health care during the first wave of infections. Future studies are needed to include the viewpoints of oral health care workers from other provinces, as well the perceptions of patients who received oral health care during the height of the first wave of the pandemic.
Highlights
IntroductionMore than 110 million people around the world were infected with SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) by March 1, 2021, following the initial outbreak of the virus in Wuhan, China in December 2019 [1, 2]
More than 110 million people around the world were infected with SARS-CoV-2 by March 1, 2021, following the initial outbreak of the virus in Wuhan, China in December 2019 [1, 2]
Five main themes emerged pertaining to uncertainties surrounding COVID-19, patient care, personal lives and infectiousness, concern for the future, and variations among different pandemics
Summary
More than 110 million people around the world were infected with SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) by March 1, 2021, following the initial outbreak of the virus in Wuhan, China in December 2019 [1, 2] Some of those infected individuals developed the novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), and more than 2.5 million of them have already lost their lives to this disease following the first, second, and third wave of infections caused in part by variants, despite vaccinations. The objective of this study was to explore the ways in which the novel coronavirus outbreak resulted in uncertainties experienced by members of the oral health care workforce in British Columbia, Canada, during the first wave of infections in the Spring of 2020. The aim of this study was to explore the ways in which that first wave of novel coronavirus infections resulted in uncertainties, as experienced by members of the oral health care workforce in British Columbia, Canada
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