Prioritizing health care workers’ mental health critical

Gold said there are a number of things health care workers can do to maintain their mental health in this industry, and that also includes being able to tell when it’s time for them to leave the profession.

“These peer support organizations, mental health organizations for health care workers, we are a bandaid as long as the environment is harmful. And so we can provide support as best we can, but for a lot of health care workers, leaving the environment that is harming them is their only way out,” Warren said.

Silacci said while there are several organizations specifically tailored toward helping health care workers cope and understand that they’re not alone, a solution to this crisis lies in changing the system to allow nurses to feel safe and get the care they need without fear or retaliation.

Warren said these organizations are tasking “health care systems to begin to address the harm they’ve caused a collective workforce.” Silacci, Gold, Warren and Durrett said it’s critical to give nurses and other health care workers access to mental health care before they reach a breaking point, and stop stigmatizing their mental health struggles.

Silacci said it’s critical to remove the superhero image projected onto health care workers and instead view them as humans who do “heroic” things. Gold said their role is inherently exposed to secondhand trauma, and as humans they need support to deal with that.

Additionally, all agree that short staffing is a key issue, and would like to see more nurses added onto shifts so one nurse isn’t taking on more patients than is safe.

Overall, they said without proper care for nurses, the health care industry, which touches everyone at one point or another, is unsustainable.