Caregiver Burnout during Covid 19 Pandemic

 Caregivers have great responsibilities in patient care because they have increased direct contact with patients and this influences them to have a heavy workload. Nurse burnout is a major factor that is caused by such stress that comes as a result of increased workload and it is established to be a major global health concern across all health care providers. It is a critical issue because it negatively affects the performance of caregivers and in the long run patient satisfaction and patient care. In recent months with the prevailing COVID 19, pandemic burnout has been on the increase among health care providers especially caregivers due to the increase of demand in healthcare services and the uncertainty that it brings due to lack of treatment and established vaccination. Studies have also shown that the pandemic has established a rise in psychological stressors that affect emotional and mental health which further contributes to burnout symptoms.

To solve such a practice issue there are several evidence-based solutions that have been established in the healthcare sector that are based on promoting positive mental health beginning with, creating awareness among healthcare providers regarding the likelihood of experiencing burnouts and the risks that burnouts can cause on their health. Such awareness is seen as a solution to this practice issue because it reduces the stigma that is linked to mental challenges like burnout and would encourage caregivers to seek help especially during pandemic where it is on the increase. Furthermore, some health care establishments have also improved work schedules and promoted self-management as strategies to increase mental health among caregivers to reduce the risk of burnouts. A meta-analysis of 17 studies among 632 nurses was done and confirmed that these measures had significantly reduced cases of burnout before the pandemic period (Sultana et al. 2020).

Different from the established literature and the intended success of the evidence-based solution on the burnout practice issue, caregivers in different establishments continue to experience a different outcome which is increased burnout during the COVID- 19 pandemics. Research from China and Italy, which were two countries that were harshly hit by the influx of infections at the beginning of the pandemic, established that there was a significant increase in mental health problems among nurses which later led to burnouts (Vizheh et al. 2020). Periods of other pandemics like Ebola and SARS also indicated similar results, despite there being an effective implementation of various established evidence-based solution caregivers and other healthcare providers face increased burnout during an influx of patients and also due to the risks presented with the infectious disease. Furthermore, just like other medical departments the mental health personnel are also overwhelmed and strained therefore unable to provide their colleagues with the much-needed support.

There are also other external factors brought about by the nature of the pandemic that contribute to the failure of the evidence-based solution. Primarily lack of preparation influenced by failure to be able to adhere to strict infection control and prevention guidelines is a contributor to mental health issues among health care providers (Sasangohar et al. 2020). The rapid spread of the pandemic due to poor preparedness of the healthcare sector has resulted in an increase in poor patient outcomes that have become a psychological burden on personnel. The lack of established processes and practices to handle pandemics was evident when it began leading to caregivers feeling overwhelmed as they had to adapt to appropriate processes and simultaneously provide efficient care to COVID -19 patients and others. The established difference of the expected results in implementing the solutions and the outcome is confirmed to be both in failure of proper implementation and also other external factors influenced by the pandemic.

References

Sasangohar, F., Jones, S. L., Masud, F. N., Vahidy, F. S., & Kash, B. A. (2020). Provider burnout and fatigue during the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons learned from a high-volume intensive care unit. Anesthesia and analgesia.

Sultana, A., Sharma, R., Hossain, M. M., Bhattacharya, S., & Purohit, N. (2020). Burnout among healthcare providers during COVID-19 pandemic: Challenges and evidence-based interventions.

Vizheh, M., Qorbani, M., Arzaghi, S. M., Muhidin, S., Javanmard, Z., & Esmaeili, M. (2020). The mental health of healthcare workers in the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review. Journal of Diabetes & Metabolic Disorders, 1-12.