While 2020 has been a year of change and challenges for many, nurses in particular have risen to the occasion and have shown up to provide support in a time when they are needed most. Their bravery, hard work, and compassion during the coronavirus pandemic is something none of us should ever take for granted. Kevin Stevenson, Host, I Don't Care had the chance to speak to Dr. Karen Wade, Author, Career Clarity for Nurses, about some of the issues hospital administrators and nurses are dealing with during the pandemic.
It’s understandable that many nurses are feeling burnout after months of working on the frontlines. Dr. Ward wrote a book designed to help nurses stay on the job when many want to quit due to COVID-19 and other pressing issues related to healthcare system flaws. She explained that even before the pandemic, there was a high rate of nurses considering leaving their jobs and that number has increased from around 40% to 60% since the pandemic hit. “I think that there's going to be kind of a reckoning at the end of this. I think a lot of nurses just out of a sense of duty and devotion are hanging in there as long as they can. But at the end, I think they're going to take a breath and they're dealing with a certain amount of trauma that they are exposed to every day and they're going to need to take care of themselves,” Dr. Ward said.
She explained that nurses simply don’t have time to take care of themselves in the way they need to right now and there may come a time when the dust settles that they begin to reevaluate their future. “Do I still want to do this? How do I take care of myself? It's going to be like a post trauma, post crisis experience and it'll be interesting to see how that pans out. But we're trying to put programs in place now to help to help people have options to be able to deal with those issues,” Dr. Ward noted.
To continue this important conversation on the challenges nurses and healthcare workers are facing during the pandemic, check out the latest episode of I Don’t Care.
