Abstract
Introduction
In Cambodia, health workers at health centers play an important role in providing essential primary health services to the population in their coverage community. The recent epidemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) could cause an additional workload burden for them and undermine their role in maintaining the provision of essential health services or even cause burnout. This study aims to assess the burden of COVID-19 on the workload of health center staff during this epidemic in Cambodia.
Methods
We used the data from the assessment of the Workload Indicator of Staffing Need (WISN) for Health Centers (HCs) in Cambodia in 2020. A total of 16 HCs in four provinces with 174 health staff, both healthcare and non-health staff at HCs from January 2019 to June 2020, were included in this study. WISN tool was used to collect and calculate the workload and staff need for each HC.
Results
The findings indicate that besides the current work of providing MPA services, health center staff are also involved in responding to communicable disease outbreaks. About one-third (31%) of HCs have overworked staff exceeding 1688 hours per year even before the COVID-19 epidemic in Cambodia. Battambang, the province with high activities on COVID-19, and Svay Rieng spent 4% extra time than the remaining province with low activities on COVID-19.
Conclusions
This study confirms that about 70% of HCs do not have the over workload for staff yet even the tasks related to COVID-19 were factored in. Therefore, it is highly recommended that the frequency of COVID-19 prevention and community education should be implemented as part of the routine work at HCs of the coverage community on top of the basic health services.