How Swedish healthcare workers managed the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic: sensemaking across organisational, interpersonal and individual levels

Background

In times of crisis the need to make sense of the situation becomes particularly evident. The perspective of sensemaking captures how individuals seek to clarify and understand what is going on when they encounter ambiguous, unexpected or confusing events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Sensemaking may occur at different but mutually interrelated organisational, interpersonal and individual levels. During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers (HCWs) faced multifaceted challenges related to their work. This study aimed to explore how HCWs managed their daily work during the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic through the perspective of sensemaking across organisational, interpersonal and individual levels.