Study	1. Was there a clear statement of the aims of the research?	2. Is a qualitative methodology appropriate?	3. Was the research design appropriate to address the aims of the research?	4. Was the recruitment strategy appropriate to the aims of the research?	5. Were the data collected in a way that addressed the research issue?	6. Has the relationship between researcher and participants been adequately considered?	7. Have ethical issues been taken into consideration?	8. Was the data analysis sufficiently rigorous?	9. Is there a clear statement of findings?	Overall assessment
Belfroid 2018	Yes "The aim of this study was to gain insight into how healthcare organizations can prepare for meeting the needs of their healthcare personnel. We did this by studying the experiences of HCWs who dealt with patients with suspected Ebola virus disease."	Yes	Yes Design was "in‐depth interviews", which is appropriate to the stated aims.	Yes "We invited HCWs who had cared for a patient with suspected Ebola or were part of the team that had prepared for admission of such patients in several university hospitals in the Netherlands. We also invited HCWs from regional ambulance services who had transported a patient with suspected Ebola."	Yes "The interviews lasted 25 min to 1 h. Each interview started with a short explanation about the goal of the study. The interviews were semi‐structured. We used an interview guide that included a topic list about HCWs’ potential needs from a systematic literature review of outbreak preparedness (A. Huis et al., unpublished data)."	Cannot tell There is insufficient information on the role of the researcher and potential bias or influence	Yes "The Medical Ethics Committee of the University Medical Center Utrecht assessed the study and concluded that it was exempt from their approval."	Yes "A thematic analysis was applied and the main themes extracted from the data. Patterns in the data were identified with an iterative process in research group meetings." Quotes are provided to support each of the themes identified.	Yes Key themes are presented and discussed. Limitations are stated	No or few limitations
Cao 2020	Yes "The objectives of the present study were to examine COVID‐19‐related stress and its immediate psychological impact among medical workers in the fever clinic."	Yes	Cannot tell Methods are appropriate: "Qualitative and quantitative evaluations via telephone" "Fixed guiding words helped medical workers understand the meaning of the interview. Open qualitative interviews were conducted in the first step, followed by quantitative questionnaires. Hotline workers stopped the interview if necessary to provide essential support." However it is unclear whether or not the interviews and evaluations formed part of the psychological support intervention.	Yes "Thirty‐seven medical workers in the first batch and 68 medical workers in the second batch were to stay and work in the hospital continuously for 2‐3 weeks and then leave the fever clinic......All medical workers at fever clinic during that time period were eligible for the study,.."	Yes "Qualitative and quantitative evaluations"	Cannot tell The relationship between the research project and the 'hotline' is unclear. Hotline workers may have been listening in to the interview: "Hotline workers stopped the interview if necessary to provide essential support." Some interviews seem to have been initiated by the hotline workers and some by the participants. When describing the qualitative interview questions it is stated that "The administrator of the hotline provided continuous feedback on findings to the Department of Emergency, the Medical Affairs Office and the labor union..." The relationship between the researcher, participants, the intervention provider and external bodies are therefore unclear.	Cannot tell Paper states: "The study was approved by the ethics committee of the hospital. Oral informed consent was obtained before the interview began." However it is unclear if ethical issues relating to the relationship issues described above have been considered.	Cannot tell Lack of information about how qualitative evidence was analysed.	Yes Findings are described in 2 papers.	Minor limitations
Chen 2020	No The aim is not clearly stated. It appears that the interviews were carried out in order to explore reasons why "medical staff were reluctant to participate" in a psychological intervention service.	Yes Qualitative methodology is appropriate to explore reasons for non‐participation in an intervention.	Cannot tell Few details are provided about the research design.	Cannot tell No information about recruitment strategy.	Cannot tell Only details given are that "a 30‐min interview survey with 13 medical staff" was carried out.	Cannot tell Lack of detail	Cannot tell Lack of detail	Cannot tell No information about data analysis	Yes Key findings are briefly listed.	Major limitations
Cunningham 2017	Yes ‐ partly There is a clear study aim relating to experiences of narrative medicine: "to examine how expatriate healthcare providers used narrative methods to process their experiences working with Ebola patients and whether these processes were therapeutic". The study aim for the first part of the interview study is not very clear, and it is stated that the aim of the qualitative interviews was to "validate findings" from the survey. The results from the first phase provided evidence relating to interventions, and this was not clearly stated as the aim of that part of the study, but it was a specific question in the interview guide ("What are some coping mechanisms that you used and use to manage the memories of experiences while working in the Ebola response? Please describe what you did while working in West Africa as well as after you returned.")	Yes The aim was to explore experiences.	Cannot tell Although interviews were appropriate to explore experiences; the extent to which the participants were familiar with "narrative medicine" is not clear. It is not clear whether this is an 'intervention' that frontline workers were encouraged to use or not.	Yes The participants comprised respondents to a survey (linked study) who consented to being interviewed.	Yes The full interview guide is provided.	Yes This is discussed, and potential bias acknowledged: "It should also be noted that TC worked as an EVD [Ebola virus disease] volunteer and thus brings a unique perspective, as well as bias to this analysis."	Yes Approval granted from "Institutional Review Board approval from Columbia University Medical Center"	Yes Methods are described for qualitative analysis. Six people were involved in the analyses.	Yes Key themes and subthemes are stated.	No or few limitations
De Jong 2019	Yes "The aim of the study reported here is to understand how the PFA approach was used during the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone and Liberia, and to learn lessons from this which can be applied in other emergency contexts to strengthen the psychosocial support offered by first responders."	Yes Qualitative interviews are appropriate.	Yes	Cannot tell Purposive sampling technique was used. However "unfortunately, many of the key individuals had since left West Africa and could not be interviewed." ‐ this may affect the results collected.	Yes Interviews were audio‐recorded	Cannot tell "In each country, data collection was led by a research coordinator (third and 4th authors) who recruited the research assistants locally. In Sierra Leone, 4 research assistants were recruited who both conducted and transcribed the interviews. In Liberia, 4 research assistants were recruited to conduct interviews, plus 4 transcribers. The data collection process was supported by the lead researcher (first author) who trained the research assistants and transcribers, and provided additional supervision and support to research coordinators, research assistants and transcribers during the first week of data collection. The lead researcher and the research coordinators conducted the key informant interviews". Lack of information about the relationship between researchers/interviewers and participants, and whether use of different interviewers for interviews with different groups of participants may have affected data collected.	Yes "This study was given favourable ethical approval by Queen Margaret University Edinburgh Research Ethics Committee, the Office of the Sierra Leone Ethics and Scientific Review Committee, and the University of Liberia Pacific Institute for Research Review Board (UL‐PIRE)"	Yes "The first author developed a coding scheme involving three levels with which excerpts of the data could be labelled........The lead researcher then worked with two other analysts (second and fifth authors) to trial the coding scheme, discuss discrepancies, and make modifications... following which all three coders worked on coding the transcripts using the on‐line analysis package, Dedoose. Once the coding was complete, the same team worked on the data analysis. The draft results were shared with and discussed by the entire research team at a workshop in January 2017, following which they were revised and finalised."	Yes Clear themes and subthemes are provided, supported by quotations.	No or few limitations
Lee 2005	Yes "to understand the needs and experiences of frontline female nurses in order to provide better psychiatric services in future epidemics."	Yes	Yes "Nurses were interviewed in small groups of 4 to 6. The interviews followed a semistructured schedule derived from previously identified issues. Based on the analysis of the interview protocols, the SARS Team Questionnaire was developed. Twenty‐six (87%) female nurses who gave informed consent to participate in the survey then completed this questionnaire."	Yes The population was the "SARS team of nursing staff", which comprised "Thirty female senior nurses from the emergency department". Participants were recruited from this group of 30, on a voluntary basis.	Cannot tell There is information about the design and use of the "SARS Team Questionnaire, and the quantitative analysis of this. However, there is little information about the interviews/focus groups and how data were collected and analysed.	No It is not stated who conducted the interviews, however it is inferred that the author team included the SARS "team leader" and "psychiatrist." This suggests that the researchers may have had roles in the SARS team from whom participants were recruited. This relationship could impact on the study and results.	Cannot tell No information	Cannot tell There is a lack of information about data analysis. Results presented are largely quantitative, from the survey, rather than the qualitative evidence from the interviews.	Yes‐ partly There is a clear statement of results from the survey (questions were developed from initial interviews), but these are not fully supported by qualitative evidence.	Minor limitations
Son 2019	Yes "to reflect actual experiences of hospital workers by using qualitative data collected in real time during the 2015 MERS outbreak in South Korea."	Yes "Qualitative methodology was adopted to investigate the negative emotion and stress of hospital workers during an outbreak, and the triggers behind those emotions and stress."	Cannot tell Unclear ‐ not a standard qualitative design, and only a small amount of data per participant: "At the end of the program's session, the participants were encouraged to leave a short, anonymous note (1 note per participant) on the “Let It Out” panel prepared by the session moderator. In these notes, hospital workers wrote about their emotions, stress, and trigger events that were most representative of what they verbally communicated during the session...........After the implementation of the program sessions was ended, the “Let It Out” panels were gathered at the center, where the short notes were then removed from the panels and collected. Overall, 156 short notes were collected and electronically transcribed for analysis."	No Lack of information about recruitment. It is inferred that a much larger number of people attended the training, but only 156 "left a note". It is acknowledged that "it is possible that the experiences of hospital workers who left a short note and those who did not leave a note are not entirely consistent. For example, the latter might have had a greater workload and felt more emotionally distressed and therefore unable or unwilling to participate in the program..."	Cannot tell See previous ‐ unusual data collection method, with only small amount of data per participant.	No "Department heads.....implemented the program to their respective departments as they played the role of the moderator". The role or influence of the department head as monitor is not discussed.	Cannot tell Lack of information	Yes A detailed analysis method is described.	Yes Themes and subthemes are described clearly, supported by evidence.	Minor limitations