‘Lessons from the Front-Line’ Facing the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

There has been great learning accumulated within the national and the international healthcare workers and COVID-19 pandemic risk mitigation professionals that are at the front line, facing the disease from different positions and at throughout its various stages. This paper aims to explore the type of learning and knowledge assets from all the multidiscipline perspectives through the observations capture by the front liners. The context deployed in this paper led to selecting different disciplines at the front-line with the pandemic in the WHO-EMRO region.

While there have been many publications relevant to the different experiences faced by the healthcare staff with the disease, the implication of this study is that it provides a holistic approach of the type of accumulated learning that could be achieved if all the disciplines involved integrate their knowledge, share it and then re-capture it in one setting in the form of guidelines or protocols.

Many of the learning could be a source for future initiatives and projects that would lead to strengthening the preparedness of the health systems, both regionally and globally. A framework is suggested for future collection of the lesson learned by the front line stakeholders to ensure the flow of the knowledge within the community at the right time. Limitations of the paper are discussed along with recommendations for further studies. The paper could be an excellent reference to WHO and public health authorities practices and performance review in relevant to the COVID-9 or similar public emergencies.