Transcript
During this time of the coronavirus pandemic doctors and nurses mental health could be suffering as they put their own health at risk to help those in need.
Being a health care provider is high risk and stressful but experts are saying those factors are now amplified because of the coronavirus.
Health care workers are becoming the so-called “second victims” of the crisis.
That term refers to those experiencing trauma related to caring for a patient.
According to a 2019 PLOS ONE study on suicides among healthcare workers, physicians are at an at-risk profession of suicide with women particularly at risk.
Hospitals around the country have been running at or over capacity.
Work hours have increased, supplies and protective gear have been in short supply or at times non-existent, and yet healthcare workers are expected to give all they have to each and every patient.
And because of how contagious the disease is, patients often aren’t allowed to have contact with their loved ones, putting doctors and nurses in the position of comforter as well.
Many in the healthcare industry have also decided to distance themselves from family members to keep them safe.
Which health experts say has a significant psychological toll on healthcare workers as well because they’re worried about spreading the virus to their families.
Which is why they need our support now more than ever.
Posted – 5.13.20