Global Risk, Uncertainty, and Health Governance: Clinical Narratives of Frontline Health Workers in Taiwan during COVID-19

At the present time, there is a lack of systematic statistics on health care workers (HCWs) during the global COVID-19 pandemic. The limited studies that are

available show that since the outbreak of the pandemic the infection rate and death rate of HCWs have been higher than those of the general public (WHO

2021). Compared with global HCWs’ situation during COVID-19, however, the experience of HCWs in Taiwan seems rather different. This project develops the

concept of "uncertainty governance in clinical narrative" through the collection of oral and life histories of frontline HCWs in Taiwan to analyze their experiences

when confronted with the global risk and uncertainty after the COVID-19 outbreak. In particular, this paper analyzes how the narrative and governance

strategies of HCWs in Taiwan have been shaped by numerous factors including medical professionalism, sociocultural contexts, national health insurance, the

governance of national infection control, and Taiwan’s status as a contested state excluded by the WHO. Currently, there is still an extreme lack of research that examines the uncertainty and governance of COVID-19 from the perspective of clinical narratives of frontline HCWs. Also, little is known about what individual strategies these HCWs have employed to cope with the uncertainty of the outbreak. By collecting clinical narratives of HCWs in Taiwan, this article aims to point out the uniqueness of the experience of Taiwan’s HCWs in global and local contexts. Furthermore, it also seeks to offer specific advice on future national epidemic prevention policies.