The pandemic has been stressful on people, specially healthcare workers. Watching countless patients die every day and countless more filling up the hospitals is enough to take a toll on them. The pandemic tried hospitals to their limit. For the first time, the healthcare sector felt just as vulnerable as the patients it takes care of. For most healthcare professionals, this meant neglecting their own physical and mental well-being and continuing to serve. Therefore, it was not surprising that some types of healthcare professionals opted to leave the profession, while some recognized their shortcomings and worked on their skills. The pandemic was possibly the most exhausting and stressful period of their lives. Here’s how the virus affected their lives and their careers:
1) Stressful Working Hours
The patient-to-doctor ratio was off the charts. Healthcare practitioners had to pull extra hours frequently. There were too many patients to manage for one healthcare practitioner, and so work deprived most of them of rest. Fatigue and exhaustion became prominent symptoms among healthcare workers. Some even collapsed on the job. Lack of rest took a massive toll on healthcare workers, and some couldn’t perform anymore.
2) Shift In Responsibilities
Nurses and doctors were no longer following traditional roles. Whenever nurses could pitch in and help the doctor, they would. Nurses who had taken relevant courses like online DNP programs or other such programs, filled the empty spaces of physicians since corona-positive patients weren’t the only kind of patients hospitals had to deal with. Some people needed their routine checkups as well as prescriptions refilled. So DNP nurses were suitable for the role of administering care to these patients.
3) Apprehension About The Infection
When the pandemic started, there was not much known about the virus. Initially, there was a good stock of PPEs and medical facilities. However, very quickly, there was a depletion in resources and no vaccine in sight. Most healthcare practitioners were under tremendous stress that they might catch the virus too. Do you know about home depot health checks? It is helpful software for checking health status. In some cases, some healthcare professionals did get infected, and some even passed away. The thought of carrying the virus home put these professionals under stress. So, most of the healthcare professionals stayed in hospitals. Further isolation from their families drove them into depression and anxiety.
4) Increase In Demand
Hospitals were no longer selective on who could join the frontline forces. They even went as far as encouraging retired nurses to rejoin. For many prospective doctors, people with a background in public health and nurses, this meant accelerating their career. Some nurses took special course for urgent needs, like taking a DNP program online, to get more leadership roles, including guiding the healthcare professionals on how to prioritize between patients. Hospitals even allowed volunteer workers who have worked in clinics to join the force.
5) An Attempt To Take Care Of Loved Ones
Most healthcare professionals had to stick to online communication to stay in touch with their families. They would use chats, video calls, or audio calls whenever they could to make sure their families were safe. They further took care of the safety of their loved ones by staying away from home. None of them were comfortable with the idea of bringing a possibly contaminated uniform home. So, if hospitals ran out of room for them, they looked elsewhere. Some professionals checked into hotels or stayed in garages of their houses. Healthcare workers who were new mothers had to find ways to feed their babies. Healthcare workers showed immense resilience in such a difficult period which is unparalleled to any other.
6) Rapid Exchange Of Information
The WHO, CDC, and FDA worked in collaboration to ensure general guidelines were in place. At the same time, they were racing to produce a viable vaccine. So, these organizations were dependent on hospital information to inform the public. Such as the WHO declaring the corona a global pandemic in March of 2020 after careful deliberation. Apart from it, digitized education in covid has also changed for students. Hospitals would disclose corona positive patient symptoms while maintaining the patient’s privacy to spread awareness in the population. This step informed people about the importance of masks and sanitizers. Therefore, during this period, healthcare workers became the most reliable source of information.
7) Lack Of Grieving
It is not easy to lose a patient. It is even more challenging to watch a colleague or spouse pass away while working in hospitals. They weren’t allowed to physically touch or hold their loved ones as they took their final breath. Healthcare practitioners who worked with their spouses couldn’t even bring their children for a farewell. Hospitals were bringing in patients who needed consistent care, so healthcare professionals only got a few seconds to grieve. There was intense repression of emotions for the sake of administering care. Not only does this cause long-term effects such as PTSD, but it also pushes them into severe mental health crises.
Wrap Up
Nothing has tried the resilience and endurance of healthcare workers like this pandemic. They had tedious working hours, a lack of rest, and isolation from their loved ones. As a result, they were fatigued, exhausted, and had lingering mental health issues.
