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Nov 24, 2024
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Pandemic Burnouts for Healthcare Providers
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Pandemic Burnouts for Healthcare Providers
The COVID-19 pandemic has directly influenced burnout among healthcare providers,
particularly respiratory therapists (RTs). The pandemic was associated with massive deaths,
hospitalizations in the ICUs, and limited interactions between professionals, which affected
mental and physical well-being. Ideally, lack of emotional support was paramount among the
therapists, with the torment of making difficult decisions and the pain of losing patience
continuously, which stressed the caregivers, increased fear among them, and made the
professionals ready to leave their work.
As a respiratory infection, the RT department had a major stake in managing COVID-19.
The RTs, therefore, had increased risks of infection and infecting their family members, which
was a major cause of burnout. According to Leo et al. (2021), during the infection's peak days,
the caregivers feared contracting the deadly disease and risking the lives of their family
members. COVID-19 patient-care providers' interactions could lead to new infections, especially
when the laid prevention procedures were not optimally observed. This fact stressed the
caregivers in the respiratory department, who knew they were vulnerable to attacks and felt they
could lose their lives or a family member could leave them after infection.
Most importantly, Covid 19 was associated with increased outpatient visits and
hospitalizations. The increased population of patients increased the healthcare professionals'
workload, which was a source of burnout. The RTs, in particular, worked for longer workers than
previously, which adversely impacted their physical and mental well-being. Managing critical
COVID-19 patients in the ward took work for the RTs, especially when the number was higher
than the usual days (Leo et al., 2021). Most time was spent in hospitals, with minimal time spent
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with the family, which made the caregivers despair. Most healthcare workers were probably
ready to leave due to overworking and failure to get time for their families.
Most professionals have blamed themselves for the deaths in the wards and for being
unable to help, a form of burnout for the workers. The RTs have been experiencing stressful
work environments since the COVID-19 pandemic, with increased characteristic deaths and
suffering among the clients. While healthcare providers are passionate about helping patients and
enjoy seeing improved outcomes, COVID-19 killed their motivation and increased burnout due
to low patient outcomes (Çelmeçe & Menekay, 2020). There were inadequate skills, equipment,
and medication for managing the condition since it was a new infection threatening the world.
These resource deficiencies further stressed the caregivers and caused fear of contracting the
virus.
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References
Çelmeçe, N., & Menekay, M. (2020). The effect of stress, anxiety and burnout levels of
healthcare professionals caring for COVID-19 patients on their quality of life.
Frontiers
in psychology
,
11
, 597624.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.597624
Leo, C. G., Sabina, S., Tumolo, M. R., Bodini, A., Ponzini, G., Sabato, E., & Mincarone, P.
(2021). Burnout among healthcare workers in the COVID 19 era: a review of the existing
literature.
Frontiers in public health
, 1661.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.750529