• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.67-76
• /
• 2022

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to find stress mediation strategies for pandemic task forces in the future by identifying role stress experienced by local officials in public health centers working as COVID-19 response task force. Whether they suffered from trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to COVID-19 was also determined. Methods: Subjects for this research were 185 public health center workers in 7 northern Gyeonggi cities with at least three months of COVID-19 response task force experience. The investigation lasted for two months, from February to March of 2021. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Results: The average role stress of research subjects was 2.79±0.60. There were 64 subjects (34.6%) who answered 'yes' for trauma experience due to COVID-19. Subjects' role stress by sociodemographic and role characteristics displayed statistically significant differences in gender (t = -2.74, p= .007), age (F = 6.41, p= .002), profession (F = 0.01, p= .014), and COVID-19 response task (F= 3.01, p= .019). Specifically, role stress was higher for females than for males, those who were in their 20's (than 40's), a nursing profession (rather than others). Role stress was also higher in COVID-19 confirmed response work or in a self-quarantine work. There was a significant difference in trauma according to COVID-19 response roles (χ² = 26.59, p= < .001) and other tasks given or not (χ²= 9.48, p= .002). Conclusion: It is necessary to take measures to reduce COVID-19 response task force's role stress and trauma.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.106-119
• /
• 2024

Drug shortage is a persistent phenomenon that poses a public health risk worldwide and occurs due to a range of causes. The purpose of this study is to review key policies to prepare for and respond to drug shortages in selected countries, such as the United States, Canada, and some European countries in order to draw implications. This study reviewed the reports and articles derived from search engines and Google Scholar by using keywords such as drug shortage and stock-out. Over the last decade or so, the United States have strengthened requirements on advance notification for disruption and interruption of drug manufacturing, established the Inter-agency Drug Shortages Task Force to promote the communication and coordination of responses, and expedited drug regulatory processes. Similarly, Canada established the Multi-Stakeholder Steering Committee on drug shortages by involving representatives from central and local governments and private sectors. Canada also adopted a tiered approach to the communication of drug shortages based on the assessment of the severity of the shortage problem and released a detailed information guide on communication. In 2019, the joint task force between the European Medicines Agency and the Heads of Medicines Agencies issued guidelines on drug shortage communication in the European Economic Area. The countries reviewed in this paper focus on communication across different stakeholders for the monitoring of and timely response to drug shortages. The efforts to protect public health from the negative impact of the drug shortage crisis would require multi-sectorial and multi-governmental coordination and development of guidelines.