The emotional experience of hospital workers and the public in an infectious disease outbreak : Implications for disaster management

Abstract

anger, anxiety, disgust, sadness, shame/guilt, and stress, by the theme mistake, missing, and delay due to communication failure

and sadness and stress, by the theme mistrust and blame for of responsiveness. Study 3, using a quantitative approach, investigated the construction of primary emotions of the public during an outbreak and the effects of those emotions on the risk perception after an outbreak as well as the protective behaviors during an outbreak. The discrete emotions—fear, anger, and anxiety—were used, and the differences among them in their construction and the effect on the subsequent responses were examined. The results found fear and anger were induced by the appraisal of non–dailiness. Furthermore, the protective behaviors of avoidance were induced by all emotions, while those of approach were induced only by anger. The risk perception after an outbreak, however, was not influenced by the emotions. This dissertation has several theoretical contributions. It expanded the understanding of the emotions of people during an outbreak. Also, it contributed to the specification of the effects of emotions on the resilience of hospital workers. Lastly, this dissertation specifies the different roles of the discrete emotions—fear, anger, and anxiety—on the behaviors of the public during an outbreak and the risk perception after the outbreak. Also, the practical implications for more effective management of a disaster caused by an outbreak were proposed as well. For hospital workers, implications for human resource management in preparing outbreaks were drawn. That is, building of emotional capacity of the hospital workers is necessary to reduce emotional disruption during an outbreak and facilitate resilience after an outbreak. It is also equally important to construct a protective environment for hospital workers. The triggers behind the negative emotions and stress, which were identified as stressors that undermined the emotional responses of hospital workers, should be mitigated by managerial efforts. For the public, the implication for more effective public communication during an outbreak was drawn. When an outbreak occurs, the public health authority should immediately screen the emotional reactions of the public. Then, the messages tailored by the emotions should be sent out in a timely and accurate manner to promote the publics healthy behaviors during an outbreak.

The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak in South Korea in 2015 was a social disaster that resulted substantial human loss. In the outbreak, a significant numbers of people were infected and died, and as a result, the society suffered from a high level of emotional distress. In such a situation, active emotional support was necessary

however, in an actual response, the emotions of those affected were widely disregarded by the public health authority and the central government during the outbreak. This dissertation attempts to reduce such gap between requirements and practices observed in providing emotional support during an outbreak. Accordingly, the evidences on the emotions people experience during an outbreak and the influences of those emotions were produced using multiple methods. Then, from the evidences, implications were be drawn to improve the management of a social disaster caused by an outbreak. Lastly, the directions for future studies were proposed. Under the purposes, three studies were designed focusing on the two key groups of people during an outbreak: Study 1 and Study 2 focused on hospital workers and Study 3 focused on the public. Study 1, using a quantitative approach, investigated the negative emotions of hospital workers and the effects of those emotions on their social functioning after an outbreak. For the investigation, the concept of resilience and the models that explain the process of resilience were adopted. From the results, it was found that the high level of negative emotions was associated with the indicators of low resilience—high level of likelihood of post–traumatic stress disorder after an outbreak and unwillingness to work in a future outbreak. In addition, the mediation of other prominent factors— appraisal of risk and personal resource—by emotional experience was observed. Study 2 further investigated emotions of hospital workers during an outbreak. In the study, the discrete emotions of the hospital workers and the stressors that trigger those emotions were explored using a qualitative approach. The analysis revealed diverse negative emotions—anger, anxiety, fear, sadness, disgust, and shame/guilt—and also, four themes of the triggers. Specifically, anxiety, fear, and sadness were provoked by the theme my workplace becoming an unsafe area

anger and sadness, by the theme stigmatization on myself and my family