The pandemic has created multiple crises for health care workers.
Hospitals are stretched thin — in beds, but more so in staffing. In Yuma, Ariz., where Gilman works, about half of the county’s hospital beds are occupied by COVID-19 patients. That level is a “nightmare” scenario for staff, as one health researcher recently described it.
Then health workers have to worry about getting sick with COVID-19 themselves. More than 1,400 health care workers have already died, according to one count by The Guardian and Kaiser Health News.
And there’s also mental health strain. Researchers expect many of those working now to be at enhanced risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder. Physicians are already at higher-than-average risk of suicide, with one analysis putting the number at about 300 to 400 dying by suicide per year in the U.S., or about one per day.
Arizona emergency room physician Cleavon Gilman says health care providers are under "unimaginable" emotional strain. https://t.co/6c4yeCyTyp #USRC pic.twitter.com/pawiXYn5z8
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