Compassion and Social Justice Series - Moral Distress, burn out, Compassion and resilience - Covid 19.

Compassion and Social Justice Series - Moral Distress, burn out, Compassion and resilience - Covid 19. As I mentioned last week (Mar 4, 22), I attended a lecture last Friday regarding the mentioned topic. They have sent me the video which I will post for you. I just want to provide you with some information to see if you want to watch it. I do recommend it for physicians, nurses and their families. Nurses have endured much as have all health care workers and I think I have been keeping you updated with that portion. The first part of the lecture was provided by a nurse, Dr Jennifer Gibson, who works in British Columbia. She talked about the history of COVID which of course I found redundant at this point but you may not. The second portion was more of an interest to me. Dr Nadia Khan MD. M. SC provided data regarding her research. She talked about having to tell a family their loved one would probably die from COVID. There was no vaccine at the time. Talked about a patient being alone, not able to speak English and family not being able to come. She described this as examples of moral distress, one of the factors leading to physician burnout. She talks about physicians facing burn out before the pandemic. She talked about who survives and who doesn’t , safety among themselves, colleagues and their families. Physician burn out in one study showed increase in deaths. What she said was that doctors have the highest rate of suicide in Canada. This actually contradicts what I have studied in that older men have the highest rate of suicide. Has this changed? Did I misunderstand? This is one of the problems when attending lectures on line. Though you can ask questions, it is controlled and not all the questions can be answered. When you are in the room, you raise your hand and normally all questions are answered. Dr Khan said the rate of burn out is emotional exhaustion. Her research is based on physicians being asked questions and answering them. The response was 42%. There was a sense of low sense of accomplishment. 11% are considering quitting. Others have already quit. They had few days off to relax. A study in China depicted 40% + of doctors had more problems aside from burnout. Dr Khan stated there is no single solution. How to improve burnout? Thinking shifted to reduce burnout. There needs to be a system change. She said that there is a lot in the way because of bureaucracy. Part of the solution is person coping, self-care, resilience, work hours, reduce paperwork and work more with patients. She said that we knew burnout was a problem before COVID and that became the tipping point. Dr Gibson talked about how nurses from elsewhere went to work where the need was greater. Regarding stigma, though it is better than 10 years ago, there is still a stigma for physicians and so because of that, they don’t seek help. As I have completed writing these notes, my mind goes back years when I heard a lecture stating that physicians, military and police have the highest rate of abusing their partners. I attended as part of my work but I was not a therapist at the time. I wasn’t surprised because all three careers are stressful. We have a better understanding of learning how to cope and it is also being taught much more. Since COVID I have not hesitated to state that I offer priority to Health care workers and emergency response persons. I think back to when I worked as an Intern at a hospital and saw the stress that physicians were under. They were worked to exhaustion and more. Since COVID more hospital staff have been asked to work more and more and more, til the point of where some want to commit suicide. Sometimes, people need to be reminded that they are human, regardless of their profession. They need a unified voice to say enough is enough. They need to make it a priority to help themselves. The public has a habit of placing physicians on a pedestal. I recall when I was an intern for about a month I worked everyday not only at the hospital but because I was seeing clients privately for my hours which was separate. I thought at the time, I could do this, because it is temporary. This hasn’t been temporary for many since COVID. Not only that but in Toronto I was so disappointed to see anti vaccinators block patients and hospital staff from entering. These are physicians and nurses going to work to save lives. These are patients going for treatment. One spoke of having cancer and how the protest made her feel while being taunted. Do sick people need this? All this contributes to the stress already facing everyone. Fortunately they created a law to stop this harassment. Have a good weekend everyone. Please make self care a priority, set boundaries, practise learning to say no, talk to someone. That is only the beginning of change by taking one step at a time. What do you think? Video can be seen at https://vimeo.com/showcase/9323983