Informal Caregiving and Role Transformation as Means of Patient Coping – A Qualitative Study on Hungary's Scarce Health Environment in the Covid-19 Era

Abstract Background Hungary was hit hard by the pandemic, with more than 3,000 deaths per million people, the highest figure of any EU country. We aimed to examine patients’ lived experiences recovering from COVID-19 infection within the Hungarian hospital setting during the pandemic by examining the psychological characteristics of their recovery. Methods The experiences of 31 patients (adults diagnosed with COVID-19 and treated in a hospital) were collected via semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The transcripts formed the text base on which our research group performed reflexive thematic analysis. Results The final thematic map includes five overarching themes, from which we present the following ones: (1) patient (self)care, a functional element of the hospital system in COVID-19, and (2) ingenuity and resilience, solutions for individuals in the healthcare system. Conclusions Our study’s findings reveal how patients and their relatives actively engaged in the healthcare system during the pandemic. The consequences of the system’s lack of resources and workload become visible, together with the resilience mobilised by the crisis, which sometimes requires the transformation of the patient role.