Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus two. It has spread throughout the world (Arshid et al., 2020). The disease originated from Wuhan, China, and is spread between humans through respiratory droplets and direct contact, mainly infecting the respiratory system and other major organ systems. During this pandemic, the medical personnel, including doctors, nurses, and paramedical staff, were overlooked since the global healthcare systems could not deal with the disease (Arshid et al., 2020). Due to the pandemic, the medical personnel encountered different challenges, including increased working hours due to an inadequate workforce (Arshid et al., 2020), increased infection risk caused by insufficient and substandard personal protective equipment (PPEs), and psychological imbalance as a result of stress, fatigue and anxiety (Chersich et al., 2020).
The lack of an adequate workforce in the healthcare systems has been a challenge globally. According to Arshid et al., The reduced workforce in healthcare made the healthcare personnel work for longer hours to deal with the increasing number of COVID-19 patients (2020). The healthcare personnel is forced to have multiple shifts or even extend their shifts to cater to the surging patients making them have little or no time to rest. As a result, the medical personnel suffers from emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion and fatigue. Long working hours and multiple shifts separate the healthcare workers from their families and difficulties in deciding the order of treatment for many COVD-19 patients (Chersich et al., 2020).
Medical staff is at a high threat of contracting COVID-19 because of direct exposure to COVID-19 patients (Arshid et al., 2020). Information from the International Council of Nurses (INC) stated that on average, 7% of the people infected by COVID and -19 were healthcare workers, more than 600 deaths of nurses as of June 2020 (Arshid et al., 2020). Lack of adequate personal protective equipment (PPEs), including goggles, gowns, gloves, face masks, and face shields and substandard personal protective equipment, expose medical staff to the COVID-19 disease (Chersich et al., 2020; Khalid & Ali, 2020). Considerable risk of infection is posed to healthcare workers who adopt less protective measures and those with a low level of clinical suspicion of the patients with mild symptoms (Chersich et al., 2020).
Psychological imbalance is another challenge that healthcare professionals are facing in dealing with COVID-19. The imbalance is brought by the fact that there is almost no resting time, which increases emotional distress, the surging number of patients, increased death tolls, and rising workload (Arshid et al., 2020). This psychological stress distracts healthcare workers’ wellbeing and decision-making by triggering psychological problems such as depression, fear, and anxiety (Arshid et al., 2020). Researchers found that the healthcare professionals, especially the nurses, were grieved due to their patients’ loss since their mood depends on their condition (Arshid et al., 2020).
The addition of more healthcare workers will help in dealing with the increasing number of COVID-19 patients. Increasing healthcare professionals will lead to proper management of patients and decrease the existing medical staff’s workload. Since evaluating, admission, and managing COVID patients involves various departments, increasing workers in different departments will add more workforce. In their final year, the medical and nursing students can be trained and given licenses to deal with the patients (Arshid et al., 2020). Technicians, dentists, and other healthcare workers can be trained to conduct triage, screenings, follow up on patients, and provide education in the community.
Healthcare workers should be protected from COVID infection (Khalid & Ali, 2020). Necessities such as face masks, face shields, gloves, gowns, and goggles should be adequate and readily available in the healthcare facilities. Personal protective equipment should be provided to medical personnel who deal with suspected and suspicious COVID patients and training on how to don and doff the PPEs (Khalid & Ali, 2020). Healthcare workers should make regular use of sanitizers a norm to reduce the risk of infection. Healthcare workers should have the minimum time possible of direct contact with the patients to decrease healthcare workers’ rates (Arshid et al., 2020). Rotation of shifts among healthcare professionals should be incorporated especially to nurses providing constant care to critical patients to decrease fatigue and exposure to COVID patients. Mobile healthcare services such as telemedicine to suspicious and suspected patients with mild symptoms should reduce the patient to healthcare workers’ direct contact.
The mental health and psychological wellbeing of healthcare workers should be prioritized. Much mental illness from doctors and nurses is caused by the fact that they can unknowingly infect their families. Doctors and nurses attending critical patients should be screened for anxiety, fear, and depression to provide control measures (Arshid et al., 2020). Workers found with such symptoms should be provided with free therapy. Medical personnel should be encouraged to express themselves and communicate with the people close to them.
The health wellbeing of medical personnel is crucial in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Increasing healthcare workers will reduce exhaustion and fatigue. Also, lesser time will be spent on patients decreasing the chances of getting infected by COVID. Medical personnel should be checked regularly for depression and anxiety to enhance healthcare efficiency on the pandemic. Thus, a healthy mind will lead to healthcare workers’ healthy bodies and a better healthcare system that can deal with the COVID pandemic better.