Yes. We’re tired. And not just tired because we are working long hours, forgoing our breaks in order to get everything done, and holding our pee while we run and grab you that “one last thing” you asked for. We’re not just tired because we’re physically lifting, turning, and supporting our patients so they can go to the bathroom and prevent moisture or pressure related injuries. We’re not just tired because of the amount of PPE we now have to don and doff, the ever changing covid-related policies, or the increased communication required visitors aren’t allowed in the hospital any more.
We’re also tired because we’re getting yelled at for taking too long to get the discharge paperwork done or grab that extra sandwich because we were too busy saving another patient who went into a life-threatening arrhythmia. We get interrupted and spoken to condescendingly while trying to educate on pain management and physician’s orders. We get the brunt of the anger and frustration when we have to be the middle man and explain that the physician is not willing to order the specific medication or dosage the patient is requesting. We get yelled at, cursed at, threatened, and have bodily fluids thrown at us. And then if our documentation isn’t thorough enough, management will be sure to have a conversation with us about that too.
We are tired because despite being the “number one trusted profession”, we’re still treated with such disrespect. We see the effects of covid firsthand. We have personal experience, professional experience, and education backing up our logic and decisions. Still, there are people who want to argue with us about the known effects and severity of this disease. Today I had an unpleasant conversation with my own father who said, “I wish they would just let us do herd immunity and let it run its course. They’re just dragging it out this way.” I explained that even in my 30’s, I didn’t want to get covid. We’ve seen long term effects of this disease, and we’re really only a few months in. His response was that “people feel crappy a couple months after the flu. They don’t feel like their lungs are back to normal for awhile.”
It didn’t matter that I had posted information from a medical source describing the way covid effects multiple systems in the body. It didn’t matter that I, his master’s prepared nurse of a daughter, explained to him that we are seeing things in covid that we do not see in the flu (because they’re two different viruses). All he took from that conversation, as he would later describe to my sister, was that I was more scared of covid than my grandmother.
So yes. We’re tired. And if we were feeling burnt out before…. we’re in trouble. Not just we, healthcare professionals. We, as a society. If we are already facing a staffing shortage and another covid wave hits harder than before (which of course means hitting both the public AND the healthcare workers who should be available to help the public) and we continue to face the things we face at work… if we continue to have to take on more work and more patients while losing our benefits… we’re going to lose more healthcare professionals.
Most of us joined the healthcare profession because we have a desire to help others. We have compassion. We put others needs before our own (as evidenced by holding our bladder for 12 hours while we help other people empty theirs). But that is not sustainable. That is not healthy. That is why healthcare professionals leave the bedside.
Lunar Lilies 