Fears on Covid front line
HEALTH WORKERS: DEALING WITH OWN ANXIETY, PATIENTS’ PANIC
For a psychiatrist, masks impinge on communication and a doula cannot work at all.
Numerous Covid-19 scares, from scenarios of infected colleagues to learning how to work in a “spacesuit”, are just some of the burdens the front-line workers carry during the national pandemic.
Anastacia Tomson, a medical doctor, author and human rights activist from Cape Town, said the outbreak stirred intense panic and fear among patients.
“This often manifested with an increase in after-hours phone calls. Patients were simultaneously afraid to come into the rooms, but also wanted the reassurance of a doctor.”
Tomson said the pandemic also meant they had to learn new techniques. “Like how to correctly perform a Covid swab, not to mention having to determine when a test is indicated [often in a resource-constrained system], and how to interpret the results.”
Tomson said her daily work routine and everything else changed immensely. “Masks and [personal protective equipment, or PPE] became a way of life. I always took hygiene and sanitation extremely seriously, but suddenly the whole rest of the world caught up all at once and there were stock-outs of hand sanitiser.
“We needed to think of ways to ensure the safety of ourselves, our staff, and our patients – many of whom are vulnerable due to age or comorbidities, for example, while finding ways to provide a service to people who need it.”
Tomson said she has recently become cognisant of the clothes she wore in the workplace and
When you work so closely with the virus, it’s hard not to let your imagination run away with you.
Anastacia Tomson Doctor
what they might be carrying.
“In fact, it was due to the pandemic that I began exclusively wearing scrubs to work, knowing I could take them off as I walked through the door and clean them thoroughly.”
Tomson said she was already particularly vigilant about not bringing pathogens home from work, but her anxiety over it certainly intensified. “We’ve had numerous scares, or scenarios were colleagues or staff members have become infected.
“When you work so closely with the virus, it’s hard not to let your imagination run away with you. Suddenly, every sneeze that is due to seasonal allergies makes you wonder, “Is that you, Covid?”
Johannesburg-based doula Heleen du Plessis said one of the biggest challenges was that she was unable to work. “Doulas are not seen as an essential service. It was a cause of major stress to the moms I had to agree to support. I was, however, able to volunteer at a facility in lockdown Level 3.”
At the clinic where she is currently working as a volunteer, they use KN95 masks, surgical gloves and plastic aprons when providing support for women in labour. Du Plessis said she has not attended a birth at a private hospital since April.
Chane Magnus, a psychiatrist from Johannesburg, said the challenges faced during the pandemic for psychiatrists were
multiphased. Magnus saw patients throughout the lockdown under strict hygiene protocols. “We needed to make sure our patients understood mental health remains an essential service.”
The extra paperwork, screening, social distancing and the five-minute waiting period for ventilation between seeing patients also made the process take longer.
“When you deal with a patient in full PPE the patient cannot see your face properly, or even your eyes. This made it difficult to deal with some of the emotional and psychiatric issues.”
She said it was also difficult for the patients in the psychiatric centres who could not get visits during the pandemic. “It was also difficult for the families of the patients who were going through a different grieving period. We are social beings, we thrive on contact.”