Making Sense of Hospitalization: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of COVID-19 Patients’ Psychological Experiences in Indonesia

While previous research has probed into the experiences of COVID-19 patients during isolation in hospitals, little is known about their psychological experiences and the meaning of such experiences. To address the gap,this study was designed to explore the psychological experiences of patients who were confirmed positive for COVID-19 while undergoing isolation in hospitals. Using a phenomenological approach, we recruited 19 COVID-19 survivors who were confirmed positive for COVID-19 in the first six months of the pandemic entering Indonesia, located in Madiun Regency, East Java Province, Indonesia. We conducted face-to-face semi-structured interviews with health protocols and analysed the data using the 6-step Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) method. Findings suggest that the participants encountered negative emotion expression (e.g., frustrated, shaken and lost the meaning of routine), protective factors that present positive emotions (e.g., adequacy of material assets in the isolation room, attention and empathy of health workers and family support), and to cultivate positive emotions through distinct strategies, including strengthening self-belief and spirituality, engaging in enjoyable self-directed activities, deepening a sense of connection with God, and sharing burdens with others to fill spare time and reduce distress. Exploring the experiences of patients with confirmed COVID-19 while undergoing isolation can provide opportunities to improve the quality of physical and psychological services for patients to speed up recovery and reduce the burden of treatment costs.