User:Svonstein/Shortages related to the COVID-19 pandemic

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Shortages Throughout the World

All throughout the world there was shortages of many items. For example sanitizing products were very hard to find during the beginning of the pandemic. Everyone wanted to be sure they protected themselves this included hand sanitizers, anti bacterial soap, and Clorox wipes. For healthcare professionals proper protective equipment was experiencing a shortage. Throughout the nation there was a shortage of proper face masks, making it very difficult for healthcare to receive them leading to wearing multiple masks for long working hours. [needs citation 1]

Healthcare Professionals during the Pandemic

Due to the pandemic there was a shortage of nurses there were many factors leading up to this. One being a high demand because of the pandemic there was a high need for nurses. Another reason for a nursing shortage was because of nurses taking care of critically ill and many nurses had to go through new training in order to gain knowledge to protect themselves and others to prevent cross-contamination. Many nurses were lost because of having to self isolate due to symptoms or a loved one who had symptoms. [needs citation 1]

Patient to Nurse Ratio

The Coronavirus has infected many people causing a high amount of patients in a hospital and due to the shortage of nurses there has not been enough nurses for patients. This made nurses take on more patients than ever before, causing more stress and burnout. Because of the high amount of patients it caused a lot of emotional distress. Healthcare workers felt the need to isolate from their families because of the fear of infecting their loved ones. [needs citation 1]

Health workers

There are many factors to the healthcare worker shortage. First, the excess demand due to the pandemic. Second, the specialized nature of care of the critically ill and the time taken to train for new methods of working to prevent cross-contamination, in some cases with new types of protective equipment (PPE). The third factor is the loss of staff to the pandemic, mostly because they are self-isolating with symptoms (which may be unrelated) or because a household member has symptoms, but also because of long term effects of the disease, or death. This last case applies across the health system and makes it harder to draw staff from non-COVID health workers.[citation needed]

Laboratory workers were brought into the limelight as the COVID-19 testing skyrocketed. Laboratory staff was already reduced, as well as funding shortages, so the pandemic created another strain on those already present issues.

Mitigations being used include recruiting military and sports medics, final-year doctors in training, private sector staff, and re-recruiting retired staff and those who have moved from the medical sector. For non-medical roles, staff have been recruited from other sectors.[citation needed]

Also, automation in health care (process automation solutions, AI-driven medical technologies, ...) can help to reduce medical staff and some equipment such as augmented reality headsets (Microsoft HoloLens, ...)) may also help to reduce the possibility of medical staff becoming ill and unable to work an can also reduce the amount of medical staff requirements through labor efficiency gains.

Isolation and trauma[edit]
See also: Mental health during the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic

As for China, medical staff are self-isolating from families and under high emotional pressure.

Psychological trauma is expected among medical professionals.[clarification needed]

The AMA has created a guide for healthcare organizations to reduce psychosocial trauma and increase the likelihood of medical staffs.

Researchers Paola, Valentine, and Rossella found that healthcare professionals are experiencing an emotional impact on their mental health, causing stress, anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders. Theme one during their research included nurses feeling that they feared what this virus was and the impacts it would have on patients and themselves. A nurse stated “The fear of the unknown, the fear of facing something that is not known, not only from a clinical point of view, but also epidemiological… then initially fear, a disconcerting fear, we were not prepared, because we never thought this could not happen to us.”  The last theme found throughout this research study was nurses feeling that they are not doing enough to help others. There has been a change in the meaning of “to care” nurses had to come to the realization that Covid-19 put everyone at risk for the chance of death. Nurses felt very alone due to losing patients so frequently and without the sympathy of family it made it even more difficult to deal with. During the interview expressed their feelings on how the pandemic affected their careers “I am not even able to ‘digest’ all of these deaths, that is to see again the body rolled up in the bed sheets, in the same sheets of the bed that we changed before, to say, not even a last change of bed sheets, a gesture of dignity, of treatment, to honour the body of what had been life.” This has caused a lot of grief and trauma for nurses and healthcare workers to deal with.

Laboratory staff who had to be brought to the front line during the pandemic experienced emotional distress. Their lifestyles changed, resulting in them being forced to leave their families to elevate the risk of infecting loved ones.