Effects of The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Sociological Study on Pharmacies in Sivas

Abstract

The Covid -19 Pandemic process, which has surrounded the whole world and started in 2020, affects not only patients, but also health organizations and employees who provide services to them. The problem of this research is the difficulties experienced by the pharmacists working in pharmacies and the technical staff providing support services as an important health organization during the COVID-19 Pandemic process, and to express it with the basic concept of the conflict theory of sociology, their “alienation”. In this study, it is aimed to reveal the alienation levels of pharmacy workers and the changes in the tactics of coping with problems in daily life during the Pandemic process compared to the pre-Pandemic period. A comparative quantitative research was conducted with a total of 100 participants, 52 of whom were pharmacists and 48 were technicians or journeymen, working in pharmacies still operating in Sivas city center by using the survey technique. The research results, which were analyzed in accordance with positivist epistemology through SPSS-25, revealed that pharmacists and technicians showed a statistically significant difference by getting higher scores in some alienation components, especially powerlessness, when compared with the pre-Pandemic and the Pandemic process. In addition, it was determined in the research that the participants resorted to tactics such as informational power, internet and social media use more than before the Pandemic for the solution of increasing alienation problems.