Translational, Transformative Compassion to Support the Healthcare Workforce
Journal of Healthcare Management, Jul 1, 2021
As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept across the world, leaving suffering and death in its wake, it ... more As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept across the world, leaving suffering and death in its wake, it has become clear that this disease threatens not merely the well-being of frontline caregivers but also their very lives. Multiple sources of psychological distress are piling onto the preexisting epidemic of burnout. Direct threats to life and personal safety, fear of exposing loved ones to the disease, and having to bear witness to death on a scale unprecedented in recent generations have converged to create traumatic stress injuries among caregivers. The pandemic has also brought into sharp focus the enduring impact of racism and societal inequities in the United States. The forces of bias, discrimination, and social determinants of health are clearly apparent in the disparate impacts of the pandemic on people and communities of color (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). The resulting moral distress only adds to the mental health burden of caregivers. Early in the pandemic, as clear strategies to obtain and equitably distribute personal protective equipment and other essential resources were lacking, many of those providing direct care experienced a sense of leadership indifference. More than one year into the pandemic, 62% cited insufficient access to personal protective equipment as a source of significant stress (Wan, 2021). Almost all healthcare workers agree that pandemic-related stress has harmed their physical or mental health, more than half are burned out, and nearly a third are considering leaving healthcare (Wan, 2021). We know from previous incidents of mass trauma that mental health issues do not simply fade away. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among first responders and recovery personnel continued to rise for at least 5 years afterward (DePierro et al., 2020). So, an urgent question arises: Who is caring for the caregivers? Concerned about the ominous challenges that the pandemic posed for the healthcare workforce, the Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare responded quickly. Laser-focused on our commitment to support caregivers, we researched the empirical literature for effective responses to immediate and mid-term mass trauma. We sought JHM-D-21-00139
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Papers by Beth Lown