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Healthcare workers battle with burnout and depression on frontline
Healthcare frontline workers are traumatised, exhausted and demoralised while watching frightened patients and colleagues die. Eyewitness News (EWN) has spoken to a number of doctors and nurses who are not coping emotionally and physically with the second wave of COVID-19. “Despite battling with their mental health, many of them simply don’t have the time to receive proper counselling”, said EWN reporter Mia Lindeque. She spoke to several doctors and nurses who all tell the same story. The trauma of the pandemic has taken its toll on them. They have often had to resuscitate their own colleagues who contracted the virus or pull 36-hour shifts without any break because of the rise in critically ill COVID-19 patients. “They are working long hours. Some of them have described having to work 36 hours because their patients need them. All the healthcare workers I spoke to admit that they are burnt out and depressed. They feel helpless and hopeless. They need to get counselling... but the sad part is that there is no time for them. One nurse that I spoke to said, "You can see the fear in a dying patient's eyes". One doctor that I spoke to Dr Caroline Lee, an anaesthetist who has to intubate patients, said, "You almost feel like you want to breathe for your patients but you can't and you just have to watch them die in front of you". That really hit me hard. They all share the same story... that they basically have to play God, there are not enough oxygen points and so many times they have to juggle can get oxygen.”
Source: Eyewitness News |
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