A meta-Analysis of Health Care Employees Experience with Covid-19 in Africa

The objective of this review was to present evidence gathered from research studies across African countries on Health Care Employees experiences with COVID-19 pandemic focusing mainly from Human Resource perspective. A scoping review method was used to search materials from Google Scholar, PubMed, Thematic scholar, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Science Direct. Data on HCEs was collected from 12 countries from Africa. Out of 93 articles retrieved from search, screening left 19 for final analysis. Findings indicate that there were poor leadership on COVID-19 management in many health care facilities across Africa. There was shortage of HCEs in various COVID-19 treatment centers, increased workload and other HCEs had to go to work while ill. In some countries HCE experienced lack of training on COVID-19 management, poor staff welfare such as food and resting space, and majority of them were poorly paid. It was also reported that HCEs experienced disconnection from family members and others were exposed to physical and psychological work place violence. Governments in Africa should ensure that there is a proper leadership in managements of health facilities that will oversee adoption and implementation of human resource practices that enables HCE to properly fight against outbreaks of pandemics like COVID-19. The current review provided evidence that human resource practices as experienced by HCEs during the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in Africa had negative effect on their physical and mental well-being.