Introduction
- There is a great burden right now on the healthcare industry to perform and deliver quality services to the people that need them the most right now.
- The healthcare industry needs to put its best foot forward to endure the stresses and the overall chaos that has transpired across the globe due to the pandemic.
- However, despite the best efforts of everyone involved, there are still issues within the healthcare industry in general, especially due to the current pandemic caused by COVID-19.
- Physical Proximity with Patients
- Social distancing has become one of the most implemented and effective ways to stop the spread of the virus while it is rampant worldwide.
- However, despite this in place, this is something that many medical professionals have had difficulty implementing. This is because they have to work with their coworkers and be around patients to closely observe them for any developments in their illnesses caused by the virus and to treat them in any way they can.
- It places all health professionals at a crossroads to care for their patients and to also care for themselves through social distancing. Unfortunately, it is a situation that the healthcare industry has to continue to navigate until the pandemic ends.
- Mental And Physical Health of Physicians and Nurses
- The pandemic has not only been taking a toll on the patients of the virus, but also on the medical professionals taking care of those people in hospitals as well.
- Having a greater than usual number of patients, more time is needed to provide care for these patients. However, the number of medical professionals such as physicians and nurses have stayed around the same for the most part in this crisis. This demonstrates an increased need for workers who can take on these extra hours to take care of those in need.
- The extra hours taken on by healthcare workers is taking a toll on their health, both physically and mentally.
- The lack of sleep and rest are what contribute to these physical and mental health issues for these physicians, nurses and other health professionals as well.
- The long hours spent on many different patients at once as well as working overtime to care for people with no inherent cure is taking a toll on the healthcare workers mentally at the moment.
- Lack of Hospital Space for Patients
- The pandemic has brought into the hospitals a lot more patients due to the severity of some cases it has on certain individuals. However, no preparation has been made by the healthcare industry to ensure that there are enough hospital beds around for a global pandemic such as this one.
- As a result, many of the hospitals worldwide right now are over capacity and practicing “hallway healthcare” due to the high number of patients coming to hospitals due to the pandemic.
- High Workload
- There are a lot more people going into hospitals now more than ever due to the virus, and now the services of healthcare professionals such as physicians and nurses are needed more than ever before.
- This has caused a lot of healthcare workers to work overtime to keep up with the increasing demand in services needed by them to try and help as many severely affected people due to the pandemic. The workload for these healthcare professionals has become heavier than they have ever seen before.
- Lack of Coordination
- Due to the more hectic environment caused by the COVID -19 virus globally, certain healthcare workers are finding it harder and harder to maintain order in their respective working environments.
- One of the unfortunate results of this is a lack of coordination between the medical professionals with each other as this hectic environment goes on each day and the number of patients continues to rise.
- Lack of PPE
- As health professionals cannot effectively adhere to social distancing protocols, they must turn to the use of extensive personal protective equipment (PPE) to keep them safe from the virus.
- Yet again there are not enough PPEs to go around for each healthcare professional working in this risky field.
Conclusion
- The COVID-19 virus has caused a lot of issues for the healthcare industry as a whole and has affected the world so much in just a span of a few months due to its increasing spread worldwide.
- Healthcare professionals are now facing issues such as mental health issues and a high workload just to give their service to the people in need of care at this time.
- Other issues have also come to light like the lack of several resources such as hospital beds and PPEs to go around so that these medical workers can take care of their patients.
- How can the healthcare industry solve these issues caused by the global pandemic?