For those of us in healthcare right now, there are many real/potential causes of moral distress related to the pandemic, let alone our regular, everyday work. Do we have PPE? Is there enough of it? Who is getting tested? Are there even any tests available? Test backlogs. Do we have enough staff? ICU beds? Ventilators? The necessary drugs to sedate patients while they are ventilated? Are we safe to go home to our families? Strict visitation policies that prevent family from being at bedside when a baby is born or a loved one dies. Sigh. That last one, in particular, is hard.
I found something that you might find helpful from the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress that the Hastings Center linked to and it’s worth a minute to review. The response to and recovery from this pandemic is going to be a marathon not a sprint and we owe it to ourselves, our colleagues, our families and our patients to take care of ourselves.
