The Devastating Impact of the Pandemic on the US Healthcare Workforce
During the COVID-19 pandemic, health workers in the US and around the world have been celebrated for their amazing work in trying to help people and beat the pandemic.
However, some have been criticized and found the going tough despite their efforts in tracking the virus, reducing its spread, and helping people avoid infection.
Some of them have actually been left on their own, with members of the public distancing themselves from the health workers and media houses as well as political leaders attacking them (health workers) and their work.
Others have lost their jobs, with some being forced from their offices and others being subject to different protests. This has been very difficult for them and has created a very difficult working environment meaning that they are not able to deliver.
Apart from that, some have also been exposed to the virus, with some losing their lives. Others have had to suffer from other health complications, with mental health illnesses being one of the most common among them.
What Should Have Happened?
These health care workers have gone through all this while still at work, sacrificing their free time and working longer hours than usual. Some have even gone as far as taking up roles that they are not familiar with just to make sure that the virus is contained.
To create a good working environment, American hospitals need to adopt the use of an MSP. But what is a healthcare MSP? This is a managed service provider program that helps facilities when it comes to the recruitment and management of healthcare professionals.
This program ensures that every facility has the right and qualified medical staff to meet the requirements of both the facility and its patients.
With an MSP, American hospitals would be able to avoid some of the issues brought by the pandemic on healthcare workers. Some of these issues include;
Mental Health Illnesses
Healthcare workers have been professionally trained to act and think steadily no matter the type of medical emergency they are faced with. That notwithstanding, most of them still have had to face certain psychological challenges.
This was mostly caused by the effects of the pandemic, the number of people they had to attend to, and the time they had to spend working. Some of the most common challenges among them include depression, anxiety, fear (especially due to certain deaths of COVID-19 patients), and insomnia.
Low Acceptance
Even though health care workers have all along been at the forefront of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, they have faced a lot of social stigma. Some people have avoided interactions and cut communication with them for fear of being infected with the virus.
In addition, some landlords are reported to have evicted healthcare workers or hiked their house rents especially when they tested positive for the virus. This made it difficult for the health care workers, adding to the stress and mental health problems.
Long Working Hours
There is a remarkable number of people working in the healthcare industry in the U.S. However, the pandemic saw a large number of infections, making it difficult for healthcare workers to handle all of these people.
This led to an increase in their workload, something that made some of them work for long hours without resting. This, added to the stress, exhaustion, and insomnia, things that are most likely to lead to mental health illnesses.
Inadequate Personal Protective Equipment
Finally, some healthcare workers have reported that they got either low-quality or inadequate personal protective equipment during the pandemic.
This, apart from leading to a political uproar especially due to the source of the equipment, left the health care workers exposed, with some of them contracting the virus in the line of duty.
In conclusion, even though the pandemic inspired some businesses to innovate in health, it also had a devastating impact on the US healthcare workforce.
There are measures that have and are still being taken to make everything easier for them (the workforce), but American hospitals need a program such as the MSP to ensure that they have adequate healthcare personnel and provide them with a comfortable working environment. After the pandemic, there are more job openings such as the ones in https://www.utmb.edu/hr/careers/.