6 STRENGTHS and LIMITATIONS
As far as we know, this is the first qualitative study in Iran that focused on occupational stress among HCWs working in primary health care centers.
On the other hand, the samples were heterogeneous because the HCWs were from different cities and health centers. Finally, by considering different points of view, comprehensive findings were obtained. This is a strong point for this study.
Another strength is that the individual interviews in this study were conducted before the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, and the focus groups were conducted at the same time as the outbreak of the disease. Therefore, the findings of one of the most sensitive job conditions of HCWs were included in our study.
However, several limitations should be considered in this study. Since, in the primary health care system of Iran, HCWs are mostly women, there was a limitation for this study, that the participating HCWs were all women. Therefore, findings related to gender differences in the perception of workplace stress may not be observed in our study. In addition, the findings of this study are based on the structure of Iran’s health system, some of our findings may not be meaningful in other countries.