If you’re asking the question, “how are hospitals and healthcare facilities recovering from COVID?” you’ve come to precisely the correct place to learn all you need to know about the long-lasting effects of COVID, some of the methods that healthcare facilities and workers have begun using to combat the damage that COVID has done, and more.
Although the most prominent issues already existed before the beginning of the pandemic, such as the ongoing nursing shortage, without preparations for something as large-scale as COVID-19, healthcare took a significant hit that nobody was prepared for. The biggest issue plaguing the healthcare sector as a whole is the lack of efficient staffing, something that COVID had and continues to worsen tenfold.
As we’ve already known, healthcare staffing and nursing shortage have been rampant throughout the healthcare field for decades, and the surge of COVID-19 has only worsened. Numerous studies over the years have shown dissatisfaction among our current nurses, and modern-day studies only confirm this further, for example, in a study by the IntelyCare Research Group, over half of our nursing workforce desire to change their careers. So many of our healthcare workers and nurses are unhappy with their jobs, causing a more significant risk of experiencing burnout. Proven by countless studies, dissatisfaction in our workers can result in more mistakes made while on the job, resulting in less efficient patient care and worse patient outcomes.
It is known that staffing levels are directly correlated with efficient patient care and outcomes, which can only get even worse if no acts are implemented to combat further the shortage and issues caused by COVID-19. Handfuls of organizations and individuals are coming together to form numerous staffing solutions, especially with the assistance of new and old healthcare technology, some of which have been developed long ago, such as travel nursing and PRN nursing. Even with these solutions, countless nurses and healthcare workers seek to leave the healthcare field. Along with over half of our current registered nurses being over 50, an incredible number of healthcare workers are simply aging.
The Healthcare Nursing Shortage and Healthcare Worker Burnout
So as mentioned, the nursing shortage has been an ongoing issue for decades, with seemingly no end in sight. The shortage is not expected to end anytime soon, with high expectations continuing throughout 2030 and beyond. This increased desire for care will only continue to rise significantly over the coming years. It will be outrageously challenging for the healthcare field to face this increasing demand while losing considerable chunks of the workforce to retirement age, burnout, and many more factors that come into play when considering the challenges that healthcare workers face every day. However, these challenges would be much less significant for numerous nurses and healthcare workers if there were sufficient staff in their designated facilities.
What is Healthcare Worker Burnout?
Something that has been around for decades in every profession across the states is what is considered “burnout.” While this is not a medically recognized term, it’s something that individuals recognize as a critical physical and mental condition that, without proper care, can quickly wear someone out to complete exhaustion. Burnout among nurses and healthcare workers is caused by countless challenges and issues within the healthcare field. However, incredibly amplified when there are fewer workers on the job as the weight is put even more on the shoulders of the small amount of staff a facility does have. You can learn more about burnout in general and the effect that COVID-19 has had on this widely experienced condition here.
Covers Overall Affect on Healthcare
From the very moment the COVID pandemic began, healthcare facilities worldwide were taking great hits that were overwhelming for staff and facilities, with countless hospitals encountering a lack of sufficient equipment to assist patients. Due to the amount of damage the pandemic has caused to individuals, groups, and facilities, it can be concluded that healthcare will never go back to the way it had been, and for a good reason. To keep up with the increasing demand for healthcare, the healthcare field must evolve and adapt to the changes happening across the U.S. even with all of the ideas and new plans coming into place to assist in preparing the healthcare field for the future, staffing and care after COVID will need much more time to recover and readapt to the new changes that are happening due to the pandemic.
