Let Us Take It into Our Own Hands: Patient Experience during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Martina Baránková (), Katarína Greškovičová, Bronislava Strnádelová, Katarina Krizova and Júlia Halamová
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Martina Baránková: Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, 821 05 Bratislava, Slovakia
Katarína Greškovičová: Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, 821 05 Bratislava, Slovakia
Bronislava Strnádelová: Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, 821 05 Bratislava, Slovakia
Katarina Krizova: Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, 821 05 Bratislava, Slovakia
Júlia Halamová: Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, 821 05 Bratislava, Slovakia

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 21, 1-15

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic introduced new health situations for patients and health professionals alike and, with them, opportunities to study these new patient experiences, gain insights into changed healthcare practices, and propose potential new healthcare solutions. The aim of our study was to explore how people coped with their health issues during the pandemic. We utilized a consensual qualitative analysis. The convenience sample that was gathered online through social media comprised 1683 participants with a mean age of 31.02 years (SD = 11.99). The 50 participants from the convenience sample who scored the highest on subscales of the COPE inventory were selected for in-depth interviews. In-depth interviews with 27 participants from the convenience sample who reported a health issue were analyzed. The final sample in our study therefore comprised 17 women (63%) and 10 men (37%) with a mean age of 28.35 years (SD = 9.31). The results showed that behavioral coping with health problems was mentioned across all participants’ accounts. However, participants facing a health issue during the COVID-19 pandemic mostly relied on their own self-help instead of on healthcare services. They utilized healthcare services only when absolutely necessary. Furthermore, the participants had two main sources of resilience: themselves and other people.

Keywords: consensual qualitative research; coping; COVID-19 pandemic; healthcare; patient experience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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