Comstock's magazine 0620 - June June 2020 | Page 36

WORKPLACE HEALTH
Donaldson (speaking personally and
not as a representative of her organization)
says while the work of treating
critically ill patients might not be substantially
different, the hospital’s atmosphere
has noticeably changed. Elective
procedures have been canceled, health
care workers fear being the vector that
exposes their families to the disease, and
constant media coverage has kept the
pandemic at the forefront of everyone’s
minds. Donaldson, who does not have
children, sees her coworkers who are
parents struggling with added tension
in their home life, as they now balance
child care or remote learning. Patients
entering the hospital for COVID-19
require isolation, and medical staff must
use more protective equipment. Visitors
were not allowed until early May.
“That is hard for (patients and
families), and it’s difficult for nurses, as
well, because we are always a big part of
end-of-life care or critical care management,
with respect to communicating
with the families,” Donaldson says of the
changing visitation policies. “They call,
and we give them updates, and oftentimes
nurses are giving the information
that they can process a little bit easier. So
we’re the ones who typically have a pretty
good relationship with the families, so
that is different, and it is stressful.”
Donaldson credits her hospital’s
preparedness and efforts to regularly
communicate with staff as helping to
ease anxiety, along with access to the
Academic and Staff Assistance Program,
which offers free on-campus
counseling to faculty, staff and their
immediate families.
“This has been and continues to
be an evolving situation that requires
health care professionals to adapt
to change,” she says. “Though these
changes require new challenges, I have
felt supported by my facility, my unit
and the team of health care professionals
I work with every day.”
FINDING REPRIEVE —
AND MEANING
Many nurses and other health care
workers enter the profession because
of their empathetic nature, but some,
over time, absorb the trauma of their
patients, which can lead to emotional
exhaustion and withdrawal. “You’ve
got these people with enormous hearts,
the most caring people in the world,
and over time they would find themselves
becoming callous to suffering,”
Black says. “We all have our limits to
how much compassion you can have.”
Compassion fatigue can be debilitating
for people who don’t understand the
condition or know how to get help. But
help does exist.
For those with loved ones on the
pandemic’s front line, Porteus recommends
validating their feelings and
acknowledging that what they are doing
is scary. He also advises giving these
people time to rest and recover from the
exhaustion they feel.
In a long message sent to his
WellSpace staff in late April, Porteus
writes about the importance of people
assisting others during the pandemic,
in ways that are “purposeful, loving
and courageous, which means that
we create meaning through it. And
meaning helps us survive our hardship.”
He says this philosophy reflects
the field of logotherapy, a therapy
focused on finding meaning in life,
which was founded by neurologist
and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust
survivor.
“One of the things that helps the
front-line workers is knowing they are
doing something heroic,” Porteus later
says. “It may be frightening, but they
know they are doing something good
for the sake of society. It helps the ambiguity
to feel valued and needed and that
they are doing something productive
and contributing.”
This desire to find meaning — even
in the most miserable of circumstances
— can also help the mental well-being
of people confined to their homes but
who still possess the ability to do good
deeds. Having a value system and being
part of a social structure helps metabolize
the anxiety people might be feeling,
according to Porteus. The average
American can help front-line workers
“That is hard
for (patients and
families), and it’s
difficult for nurses.
... They call, and
we give them
updates, and
oftentimes nurses
are giving the
information that
they can process
a little bit easier.
So we’re the ones
who typically have
a pretty good
relationship with
the families, so
that is different,
and it is stressful.”
HEATHER DONALDSON
CRITICAL CARE NURSE,
UC DAVIS MEDICAL CENTER
36 comstocksmag.com | June 2020