Covid-19; Impacts on Healthcare Workers
Student’s Name
Institution Affiliation
Course
Date
Introduction
In just a few months after its outbreak, the new virus, COVID-19, has drastically transformed the whole world. COVID-19 is an infectious virus caused by SAR-COV-2C (severe acute respiratory syndrome). The pandemic was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, and since then, it has spread across the globe like wildfire. Approximately 3.24 million cases have been reported as of 30th April 2020. The disease has caused more than 230,000 deaths, including the old, children, parents, and healthcare workers. Luckily, more than one million people have been reported to have recovered. The most noticeable and common symptoms of COVID 19 include shortness in breath, cough, fever, fatigue, and loss of smell. The pandemic is also associated with health, social, psychological, and economic crisis. Economically, the disease has posed huge challenges raising many dilemmas and imposing wrenching tradeoffs. It has resulted in the largest global recession in history. Today more than a third of the world is in lockdown. Various institutions have been closed. Many people have been laid off their jobs. There’s also a shortage of supplies due to panic buying. Most importantly, the disease is affecting the very ones who are trying to fight it; the medical personnel. The virus has created an unprecedented disruption of the global health and development community. This paper aims at examining how the outbreak and spread of COVID 19 have affected the lives of medical doctors.
Impacts of COVID 19 on Medical Doctors
As much as they strive to take care of infected patients, Doctors encounter a lot of challenges that complicate their work. The organizations that are fighting this disease, as well as those that deliver social services and support healthcare workers, have become the center of attention today. There’s a shortage of medical personnel, and doctors are confessing that COVID-19 is unlike anything they have seen before (Persad et.at,2020). Just after the outbreak, most operating rooms in hospitals have been challenging for these doctors as they try to fight the enemy that has killed thousands of people. The following are some of the challenges that doctors encounter in their everyday lives as they soldier for us.
Psychological Problems
The virus is taking a mental toll on doctors, nurses, and other medical experts who are in the front line in this fight against the pandemic. Seeing several deaths daily is indeed hard for anyone put up with. Doctors and nurses have suffered adverse psychological reactions such as anxiety, insomnia, depression, and distress or post-traumatic stress symptoms. A cross-sectional and geographically stratified research survey carried by Medical Journal (JAMA) revealed more than 50% of the global population tested symptoms above psychological conditions. However, the symptoms were higher on medical doctors and nurses caring for COVID 19 patients. This is mainly because of the horrors they encounter every day.
Health Impacts
To make matters even worse, doctors have started testing positive for COVID 19, and with this, most of them bring the virus to their families. In interviews, several doctors say that COVID 19 is making them more dedicated to their profession and that they determined to push through this challenging time to help their patients (Driggin et al.,2020). However, many of them have also admitted to harboring a darker feeling. They are afraid of spreading the disease to their loved ones. Many health workers have died as they commit themselves to save the lives of their patients whole, putting theirs at risk.
Shortage of Personal Protective equipment
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the supply chain of personal protective equipment (PPE) has drastically dropped with rising numbers of the infected cases. Constraints in these supplies mainly caused by export bans. The Republic of China is the leading producer of PPE. Doctors all over the world are complaining that they don’t have enough resources that they need to fight the pandemic. Therefore, finding ways to support medical workers’ health is the critical component of fighting against COVID 19.
Conclusion
In summation, it’s evident that Covid-19 is mentally and physically affecting health care workers. Many doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals have died. Some of these doctors have also brought the virus to their families at home, resulting in even more deaths and pain. Also, the deaths of these workers are mainly caused by a lack of personal protection equipment. Moreover, the virus has also led to stress and a rise in mental problems among health care workers. Therefore, there is an urgent need to maintain the mental and psychological health of these workers in such a horrifying and stressful situation. These workers need protection equipment and physiological support, for instance, counseling services in order to help them perform their duties.
Reference:
Driggin, E., Madhavan, M. V., Bikdeli, B., Chuich, T., Laracy, J., Bondi-Zoccai, G., … & Brodie, D. (2020). Cardiovascular considerations for patients, health care workers, and health systems during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Sabino-Silva, R., Jardim, A. C. G., & Siqueira, W. L. (2020). Coronavirus COVID-19 impacts to dentistry and potential salivary diagnosis. Clinical Oral Investigations, 1-3.
Emanuel, E. J., Persad, G., Upshur, R., Thome, B., Parker, M., Glickman, A., … & Phillips, J. P. (2020). Fair allocation of scarce medical resources in the time of Covid-19.