The world continues to go through unprecedented changes. Numbers dictate that the COVID-19 pandemic is seemingly slowing down, but the lack of vaccine and official cures still leaves the world vulnerable. Cases will likely rise again, and while people have already lost so much, the battle is far from over. While the narrative mostly settles on the numbers and survivors of the coronavirus, the pandemic has brought forth burnout in healthcare. People often forget that the most vulnerable members of society are currently doctors. With a steady stream of stress, doctors are constantly urged to make life-or-death decisions.
Alert fatigue is very much real, and with a variety of stressors coming into play, physicians are left to deal with not only the pandemic, but administrative work and virtual care. Society continues to depend on healthcare providers in such trying times, but being at the frontlines for months on end, most of them are at their breaking points.
If you’re at the frontlines of healthcare in the pandemic, here’s a timely and crucial reminder: you can rest. Here’s what else you can do to minimize the onslaught of fatigue and burnout:
Champion automation and optimization of workflows
Clinical burnout is real, especially for healthcare providers that constantly deal with measures that affect decision making and innovation. There is no way to reduce the sensation of burnout—no amount of yoga sessions and ice cream treats can cure the impairments brought about by burnout. To address the problem, one must dig deep and find the roots.
In most cases, problems arise due to the lack of proper workflow management. This causes bottlenecks and administrative burden, so it’s important to begin embracing technology. Urge your institutions to invest in automation—now more than ever, technology plays a crucial role in the battle against COVID-19. Human hands can only do so much—it’s machines and robots with a limitless energy that needs to take over.
Pursue a holistic self-care
With no cure and vaccine to help gain an advantage, doctors are forced to work overtime to help patients, especially those who need constant care. Many healthcare providers also tend to patients from home, making it more and more difficult for physicians to operate under normal schedules. Unfortunately, the only thing to prevent burnout is to simply pursue care. It’s to say yes to sleeping, eating, and socializing. It’s choosing to exercise at certain hours of the day, as well as going out for a socially-distanced walk.
Work can quickly take over your home life, eating up your schedules that bleed well into the early morning hours. To battle burnout and fatigue, a disciplined approach to rest must be implemented. Your patients need you, but it’s also important to remember that they need you well and functioning.
Should the mental pressures feel consuming, mental health facilities are readily available for doctors. It’s important to pursue growth to remain at an advantage—when your body crumbles, so will your patients.
Healthcare For Healthcare Professionals
It may seem difficult to leave the lines and have someone else take over, but the pandemic is an enemy that does not rest. As a human being, your body requires ample time to recuperate and recover, which cannot happen with constant work, stress, and pressures allowed into your place of rest. Keep fatigue and burnout away by nipping the problem at the bud. Keep yourself healthy and well. In the midst of blurring work limits and a pandemic with no cure, your patients will be relying on you. Keep the virtual care at the minimum, and direct that care to yourself.
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