Kelly, Paula;
Aldiss, Susie;
Wray, Jo;
Vindrola-Padros, Cecilia;
Gibson, Faith;
(2025)
‘That’s kind of under my work blanket’—redeployment experiences of children’s hospital staff during the covid-19 pandemic: a qualitative interview study.
BMC Health Services Research
, 25
(1)
, Article 46. 10.1186/s12913-024-12084-8.
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Abstract
Background: During COVID-19 pandemic, a rapid readjustment to continued delivery of healthcare was required. Redeployment is an intentional process to mobilise human resources by reassigning a healthcare worker to a new role or new work location, to achieve sustainable delivery of patient care. We report redeployment experiences of staff from a specialist children’s hospital during first and second waves of the United Kingdom COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This study focuses on a specialist children’s hospital where redeployment occurred externally to adult intensive care units and other COVID-19 specific initiatives, and internally as some service activity reduced and others expanded. This was a study of staff experiences using a qualitative rapid appraisal design. Hospital staff participated in an in-depth one-to-one telephone interview. We used a semi-structured interview guide, and recorded and transcribed all interviews. Rapid Research Evaluation and Appraisal Lab sheets were used to share data; team-based analysis was facilitated using a framework approach. Results: Recruitment and interviews took place from March-November 2021. Twenty-four staff participated: 17 nurses, five doctors and two other healthcare professionals. Interviewees articulated their experiences of redeployment both within the specialist children’s hospital and externally to other health settings (predominantly adult intensive care). Redeployment impacted staff in multiple ways professionally and personally and was reported to be both challenging and rewarding. The reality of working in different settings was felt by everyone, with unfamiliar environments, patient safety, and delivery of a more task-based model of care creating some negative experiences. We identified five main themes: (i) Drivers and Agency; (ii) Journey to Redeployment; (iii) Working Reality; (iv) Personal Impact and Support; (v) Professional Disruption. Conclusions: Although experience of those redeployed varied, prior background of working in intensive care settings and with adult patients, with opportunities to share practice with colleagues, mitigated challanges for our participants. Positive experiences were associated with perceptions of support received, being welcomed in the new setting, and feeling valued. This study also highlights the act of ‘volunteering’, the nature of ‘voluntariness’ and the difference that may exert on the overall redeployment experience. Future guidance would be encouraged to consider the voluntary nature of redployment.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | ‘That’s kind of under my work blanket’—redeployment experiences of children’s hospital staff during the covid-19 pandemic: a qualitative interview study |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1186/s12913-024-12084-8 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-024-12084-8 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Redeployment, Qualitative research, Covid19, Health professionals, Interviews, Children’s Hospital |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Surgery and Interventional Sci UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Surgery and Interventional Sci > Department of Targeted Intervention |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10203411 |
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