Health care workers' experiences of calling-for-help when taking care of critically ill patients in hospitals in Tanzania and Kenya

When caring for critically ill patients, health workers often need to 'call-for-help' to get assistance from colleagues in the hospital. Systems are required to facilitate calling-for-help and enable the timely provision of care for critically ill patients. Evidence around calling-for-help...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	BMC health services research Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 821 - 9
Main Authors:	Mkumbo, Elibariki Godfrey, Willows, Tamara Mulenga, Odongo Onyango, Onesmus, Khalid, Karima, Maiba, John, Schell, Carl Otto, Oliwa, Jacquie, McKnight, Jacob, Baker, Tim
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	England BioMed Central Ltd 17-07-2024 BioMed Central BMC
Subjects:	Adult Attitude of Health Personnel Beliefs, opinions and attitudes Calling for help Care and treatment Communication COVID-19 Critical Care Critical illness Critical Illness - psychology Critical Illness - therapy Critically ill Data collection Emergency care Emergency communications systems Emergency medical care Female Health care Health Personnel - psychology Health workers Hospitals Humans Illnesses Interviews Interviews as Topic Kenya Male Medical personnel Medical research Medicin och hälsovetenskap Nurses Pandemics Patients Pediatrics Privacy Qualitative Research Researchers Services Tanzania Kenya Tanzania Critical care Critical illness Emergency care Health workers Calling for help Communication
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Summary:	When caring for critically ill patients, health workers often need to 'call-for-help' to get assistance from colleagues in the hospital. Systems are required to facilitate calling-for-help and enable the timely provision of care for critically ill patients. Evidence around calling-for-help systems is mostly from high income countries and the state of calling-for-help in hospitals in Tanzania and Kenya has not been formally studied. This study aims to describe health workers' experiences about calling-for-help when taking care of critically ill patients in hospitals in Tanzania and Kenya. Ten hospitals across Kenya and Tanzania were visited and in-depth interviews conducted with 30 health workers who had experience of caring for critically ill patients. The interviews were transcribed, translated and the data thematically analyzed. The study identified three thematic areas concerning the systems for calling-for-help when taking care of critically ill patients: 1) Calling-for-help structures: there is lack of functioning structures for calling-for-help; 2) Calling-for-help processes: the calling-for-help processes are innovative and improvised; and 3) Calling-for-help outcomes: the help that is provided is not as requested. Calling-for-help when taking care of a critically ill patient is a necessary life-saving part of care, but health workers in Tanzanian and Kenyan hospitals experience a range of significant challenges. Hospitals lack functioning structures, processes for calling-for-help are improvised and help that is provided is not as requested. These challenges likely cause delays and decrease the quality of care, potentially resulting in unnecessary mortality and morbidity.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	1472-6963 1472-6963
DOI:	10.1186/s12913-024-11254-y