Healthcare workers’ perception of pandemic preparedness at a tertiary hospital in Southern Malawi

Abstract

The occurrence of pandemics has highlighted the need for early response and hospital preparedness in order to avert overwhelming consequences for countries with low and high economies. human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and Coronavirus disease have devastating effects on humanity. The Coronavirus pandemic took countries with low and high economies by storm, exposing serious deficiencies in the handling of outbreaks. Similarly, in countries with a low economy, the pandemic exposed their dependency on countries with high economies, lack of preparedness as well as resources to handle outbreaks. The absence of proper infrastructure, staff, resources such as equipment, and guidelines were prominent, and every government swiftly tried to come up with specific guidance for containing it. Many countries in the Sub-Saharan African region including Malawi, and across the globe have adopted checklist in an effort to manage the pandemic. The measures implemented in one way or the other brought some relief to health institutions and the whole country. The study examined hospital preparedness and response to pandemics at one of the tertiary hospitals in Malawi. Healthcare workers (HCWs) who were or are assigned to the pandemic unit managing cases using a questionnaire adopted from the WHO preparedness checklist. Data was collected in April 2024, cleaned and by STATA version 17.0. Descriptive statistics characterize populations. Frequencies, percentages were used to determine the hospital’s level of preparedness. This was essential for better solutions to potential future pandemics to save lives.