Military healthcare professionals experiences of ethical challenges whilst on Ebola humanitarian deployment

Draper, Heather (2018). Military healthcare professionals experiences of ethical challenges whilst on Ebola humanitarian deployment. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-852990

There is a major Ebola epidemic affecting parts of West Africa. Ebola is a highly infectious disease that carries a significant risk of death. New therapies and potential vaccines that can be distributed to the affected populations are being developed. Stricken communities have appealed for help. One response from the UK government has been to deploy UK military healthcare personnel to Sierra Leone (operation Gritrock), initially to provide a small facility for affected healthcare workers and to assist with training of local healthcare workers. It is possible that the scope of this involvement will increase, and prudent planning is in place for further deployments. This is the first major, purely humanitarian military deployment since Rwanda (1994). It is known that civilian humanitarian healthcare workers experience complex ethical tensions when deployed as expatriates. Military healthcare workers face both related and different (uniquely military) challenges when deployed in conflict scenarios but it is not known how they will experience the novel ethical challenges and complexities in a purely humanitarian setting, dealing with a highly infectious disease in conditions of near disaster for the affected communities. This project aims to collect interview data on the ethical challenges experienced by the deployed UK military healthcare personnel. It plans to recruit up to 25 nurses, doctors, and allied health professionals. An initial analysis of the resulting data will enable training materials to be developed quickly to benefit those, including civilians, about to deploy to Ebola-affected regions. These materials will be evaluated by a subset of the participants and used to inform, train and support existing and future (military and civilian) deployments during the Ebola outbreak. The data collected will also be used in the longer term to expand and enrich existing understanding of the ethical experiences of expatriate healthcare workers volunteering for humanitarian work in other contexts, for instance working with non-governmental organisations or as part of governmental responses. It is predicted that the UK medical military will increasingly be expected to contribute to similar humanitarian responses in the future. This work will also contribute to military preparation, training, support and policy in other humanitarian contexts.

Data description (abstract)

20 transcribed and anonymised interviews with military personnel returning from the military-run Ebola treatment centre , Kerry Town, Sierra Leone between March-July 2015. The sample included three broad groups: doctors (7), nurses and healthcare assistants (6), and others such as personal protective equipment monitors, lab technicians and mortuary attendants (7). Interviews explored the ethical challenges participants felt that they had encounters prior to deployment, during deployment and on return from deployment.

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