Learning Objective #1: Understand the perceptions of health care workers who were infected with SARS during the course of their work care

Learning Objective #2: Know clinical management and practice need to be humanistic and to have more psychosocial interventions

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SARS is an emerging infectious disease that was first identified in Taiwan in April 2003. Of 664 probable cases, there were 56 nurses, 12 doctors and 37 health related workers. 7 health care worker were dead. The infectious rate was 15.8% for health care workers. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the perceptions of health care workers who were infected with SARS during the course of their work care. Includes physical and psychological feeling after being infected, experience of being quarantined and feeling being cared. This retrospective study was conducted on SARS probable cases on an isolation ward in a local Medical Center. This study adopted the Phenomenology method to interview seven SARS health care workers, who were admitted to and isolated in a medical center, using a semi-instructed questionnaire design during 60-minute sessions Intra scorer reliability was 94.44%, while inter scorer reliability was 96.90%. The results were as follows : 1.perceived negative experience included knowledge and material deficiencies, inadequate nursing intervention, quick policy changes, fear of death, difficulty seeking help and anger about for feeling inferior. 2.postive experience perceived from isolation, included being a patient, being cared for and humanistic nursing. On the other hand, negative experiences included fear, loneliness, sense of inferiority, uncertainty, insecurity, and stigmatization. 3.transcending experiences included doing good, thinking from a patient's view, forgetting bad memories wanting to continue to care for SARS patients, being confident of being able to perform better and cherishing everything one owns. Concludes: Their acute stress of working with highly infectious patients needs to be acknowledged. Meanwhile, their knowledge with independent thinking needs to be strengthened as well. In addition to general support for staffs and to care for patients, clinical management and practice need to be humanistic and to have more psychosocial interventions.