Health care workers deserve more than gratitude

The pandemic has exacted a physical, mental toll on those who bravely fought the disease

The pandemic has been stressful for all, but the experience has been particularly brutal for the nation’s health care workers.

Analysis by Kaiser Health News and The Guardian found more than 3,000 medical professionals died of the disease and an untold number more have been infected or sickened while trying to help others. It’s come at a tremendous physical and mental cost.

Those figures, along with a recent survey of 1,300 health care workers about the experience, suggest that it will take some time for the nation’s medical sector to recover, and that long-term support for these heroes should be a priority, not an afterthought.

In December, Gov. Ralph Northam used his coronavirus press briefing to highlight a video made by Emily, a registered nurse at Holston Valley Medical Center, just across the Virginia line in Tennessee. In it, she talked about the frustration of being on the front line of the COVID-19 fight and the emotional toll exacted by seeing so many people die of the disease as she and her colleagues worked to save them.

“We’re losing more than keeping. I’ve put an ungodly amount of people in body bags that I wasn’t prepared to do. I wasn’t prepared to give up on a patient, but there was nothing else we could do, and we lost them. “I go home. I carry it home. I cry. I cry a lot.”

Her frustration and sorrow were compounded at the time by seeing people outside the hospital, in the communities where she and her fellow medical professionals live and work, flouting the guidelines and restrictions meant to slow the spread of coronavirus.

Now, this isn’t another plea about following social distancing guidelines, avoiding crowded spaces (especially indoors) or wearing a mask. Nobody should need a reminder to make smart decisions to protect yourself and others, even as vaccination numbers continue to increase.

Rather, it’s about those who bravely donned scrubs and layers of personal protective equipment every day to stare death in the face, and the future they face as a result of that excruciating experience.

The Kaiser Health News/Guardian reporting helps provide some raw numbers that are difficult to absorb. The news outlets counted more than 2,900 deaths among those on the front lines who, especially in the early months, lacked the equipment and supplies needed to protect themselves from infection.

Additional deaths in 2021 push that number to more than 3,000, though it’s unlikely a full accounting of those lost. There is no reliable number of infections or those who battled severe sickness and survived.

Nor is there a count of medical professionals who suffered physical symptoms, such as exhaustion, working long shifts day after day during the worst of the pandemic — or the impact that had on the mental health of those who endured it.

Not only were health care workers concerned about their patients and one another, they feared bringing the disease home to family. They worried about access to PPE and ever-changing safety protocols. And they felt acute frustration about people ignoring those guidelines, knowing that would mean more sickness, more hospitalizations and more death.

Those are among the findings from the Washington Post and Kaiser Family Foundation survey of front-line health care workers, released this week. It found 62% of respondents reporting their mental health was affected by their work during the pandemic and 55% feel “burned out” going to work.

Mental health has been a concern for everyone during the pandemic, due to fear of the disease, stress and frustration with the situation, and depression and loneliness from a lack of socialization. Battling coronavirus on a daily basis — confronting so much death — surely made that worse.

That’s why it’s vital we take care of our health professionals — and work to strengthen the nation’s health care system — as the pandemic wanes. They have been there for us during the worst and most taxing year in memory. We must respond in kind.