A qualitative study of stress and coping in health care workers during COVID 19 pandemic at a tertiary referal hospital.

Title: A qualitative study of stress and coping in health care workers during the COVID 19 pandemic at a tertiary referral hospital.

**Introduction:**The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) began as an epidemic in China and now is a global health pandemic, The outbreak was first revealed in late December 2019 when clusters of pneumonia cases of unknown etiology were found to be associated with epidemiologically linked exposure to a seafood market and untraced exposures in the city of Wuhan of Hubei Province. Since then, the number of cases has continued to escalate exponentially within and beyond Wuhan, spreading to all 34 regions of China by 30 January 2020 and now to different countries of the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.Healthcare workers are at the fore front of fighting the Covid – 19 pandemic. Many health care workers have lost their lives in caring for Covid -19 cases. Maintaining health care workers psychological health is essential to better control Covid 10 pandemic, although the best approach remains unclear.This is a qualitative study to assess the stress and coping due to the psychological impact of the COVID-19 outbreak at a tertiary level hospital.This will assist government agencies in safeguarding and planning for the psychological wellbeing of the health care workers in the face of COVID-19 outbreak in the state.Aim & Objectives: A qualitative study of stress and coping in health care workers during the COVID 19 pandemic at a tertiary referral hospital

Material & Methods: This is a qualitative study using focus group discussions and in�’depth interviews with health care workers

Interview guide:

The investigators will use the following probes as the interview guide:

• What are the details they elicit as part of the stress & coping in health care workers of Covid -19 cases?• What are the difficulties they experience as part of stress related to Covid-19?

• What are the ways in which they resolve these difficulties?

After conducting a pilot in�’depth interview, the study recruitment will be initiated. After completing 2–3 interviews, the investigators will code and analyse the transcripts. The investigators will recruit health care workers and coded& analysed transcripts till data saturation will be achieved. As part of availability of participants due to quarantine procedures, the investigators will conduct in-depth interviews & focus groups. The investigators will achieve thematic saturation after completing the analysis of transcripts of all participants and subsequently discontinued data collection.

Statistical Analysis: Content analysis was used to identify direct and latent themes

Risks involved & Expected Results: No risks involved in the study. The participants will be given online in-depth interviews.