The COVID-19 pandemic has put a major strain on the capacity of admissions hospitals can care for, especially in ICU units that are fully packed worldwide. Despite exhaustion from working around the clock due to the overwhelming amounts of hospital admissions, health care workers have been working nonstop.
Other than being exhausted from long stressful hours there are many other bad elements that are affecting health care workers. Fear of getting infected or transferring the virus onto family and friends has been a major stress point for health care workers.
With certain facilities being overwhelmed more than others some health care workers needed to relocate to those facilities to help with new admissions from Covid-19 infections.
In some of the overwhelmed areas, health care workers had to volunteer to work in areas they are not familiar with, this causing more tension and anxiety in their daily lives.
The fear that health care workers had to face with the possibilities of infecting family members made them isolate for months away from their families. Many of the workers lost wages due to missed learning opportunities, potentially delayed certification, and missed exams.
As health care workers are already prone to be at risk for anxiety, burnout, insomnia, and depression, the effect of Covid-19 on their current lives has not been an easy task to handle. Health care workers have been working around the clock to ensure the best medical attention for patients and being in contact with patients’ families about progress reports.