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There is fear of a second wave of coronavirus among health and care personnel whose mental health has suffered as a result of the trauma they have witnessed during the pandemic.
A report by leading health charity The King’s Fund says the impact of COVID-19 The pandemic in the workforce “has been unprecedented and will be felt for a long time.”
Winnie Nwosu has been a nurse for 10 years and loves her job. But she says what she saw during the peak of the virus left her devastated.
“I never knew about depression until the COVID pandemic hit.
“I didn’t know at the time that I was depressed, stressed or exhausted. Coming out of the closet now I realize I was very depressed. Very, very demoralized.
She describes the situation in the wards as very difficult.
“It is so alarming how people suffer.
“Having to watch patients beg them to help them breathe or to come to their family or to bring their family and he can’t do it because he’s also trying to keep his family safe. It was horrible.”
The mental well-being of health personnel has suffered as a result of the coronavirus pandemic
Consultant psychiatrist Derek Tracy believes there is concern that some healthcare staff may be suffering from a trauma-related syndrome.
He says: “Moral injury is an idea that originally dates back to the military, but has become more common in recent discussions in NHS healthcare.”
“The idea is that people are exposed to work or stress that they don’t feel prepared for.
“Most of the staff, whatever their profession or grade, we fit perfectly into a larger structure, we know what to expect when we go into work. We know what risks to take and who we can talk to and a pandemic changes that.
“Suddenly we are faced with uncertainty. Will I feel bad when I come in? Will I come back and infect my family? We are seeing people with very high death rates when they are intubated and moral injury is this idea that we feel out of control of that. “.
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The King’s Fund report that was commissioned by the RCN Foundation says the pandemic exacerbated already high levels of stress and burnout among health and care personnel.
It blames the excessive workloads of an “alarmingly high” number of staff who intend to leave their jobs, adding to the already large number of nurse and midwife vacancies across the health and care system.
Winnie says that despite the trauma she went through earlier this year, she is ready to fight the virus again.
“You know the patients who look at you after everything you’ve done for them and thank you.”
And you know your team will keep going, just like they did before.
