Podcast
COVID-19 Chronicles Ep 4. Heroes: Health Workers Battle Stress and Exhaustion
Many frontline workers were traumatized by the physical toll their work took on their well-being. Najib quotes some of them.
Najib: Some healthcare workers were saying “I had to wear diapers, and so I don’t need to go to the toilet. And even to go to the toilet or take a shower, we had to stand in line because there were just so many people in different shifts.”
Healthcare workers had to go through incredible amounts of stress in dealing with the pandemic, not just in [the PRC], but in all of our developing member countries. Healthcare workers said, “I didn’t drink anything at the hospital. We couldn’t eat anything because there was a lack of food for the workers because they were so busy and there were so many cases. The hospital provided lunchboxes as much as they could.”
However, because of the surge of cases, many healthcare workers themselves got ill and had to be treated in hospital, either because they got COVID or they had other issues related to stress. One healthcare worker was mentioning “Even after work, when I should have been resting, I had to communicate with patient’s families from the hospital or other people in my community to address their concerns and try to address their issues related to COVID-19.” They had to use their own phones, their own homes, their own methods of communication, because people knew they were healthcare workers, not just doctors and nurses, but healthcare workers. Many people did not have COVID but had diabetes, had heart disease or were suffering from strokes were not able to access healthcare services. These are the kind of issues that many people in our developing member countries faced.
Some healthcare workers were saying “I had to wear diapers, and so I don’t need to go to the toilet. And even to go to the toilet or take a shower, we had to stand in line because there were just so many people in different shifts.”
We’d like to express our appreciation and our recognition that healthcare workers in [the PRC] and in all developing member countries and certainly across the world really had a difficult time. We really appreciate their hard work during this time of COVID-19.
