How another COVID surge is affecting health care workers, according to IL hospitals
Health care workers have seen severe illness and death from COVID-19 for two years now in hospitals, and they are in the midst of another spike in hospitalizations.
After what they have experienced since 2020, one metro-east hospital official says she worries about the future of health care.
Terri Halloran, vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer at Memorial Hospitals in Belleville and Shiloh, said workers might be rethinking if they want to be in health care anymore.
About 10-20% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients will usually end up in an intensive care unit for “the sickest of the sick patients,” according to Halloran.
At that point, workers are “doing everything we can to keep their lungs from totally shutting down,” Halloran said. “... That’s eventually why people die, because we cannot support their lungs anymore.”
She said health care workers have seen the pattern over and over again since 2020.
“They’re just devastated,” Halloran said.
Leaders at area hospitals, including Memorial, St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in O’Fallon and Gateway Regional Medical Center in Granite City, agree their workers are tired in 2022 amid another surge.
“They keep coming back to work because I truly believe they believe they’re doing what they signed up to do, which is care for their community, and this is what their community needs,” Halloran said.
“They hope for that one patient to survive the statistics, for the patient who has kids to get out of the hospital and go home. ... My biggest concern is that staff will just lose that sense of hope and leave the health care profession altogether.”
Halloran said they have experienced discouraging moments during the pandemic, like patients who refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccine and people who spread misinformation.
Steve Tomaszewski, spokesman for Touchette Regional Hospital in Cahokia Heights, said there is an added stress on hospital workers with this surge, because the number of health care workers out sick due to COVID-19 is increasing along with infections in the community and patients in the hospital.
“I think given the larger volume, especially for emergency room staff, they’ve seen higher numbers of patients with fewer staff to assist,” Tomaszewski said. “It’s a more hectic and stressful time that’s for sure.”
Maryville’s Anderson Hospital spokeswoman Natalie Head said staffing shortages are the worst they have been throughout the pandemic, in large part because of the omicron variant of the coronavirus circulating in communities.
Even fully-vaccinated people can become infected with omicron, which Head said includes health care staff taking care of COVID-19 patients.
Halloran said Memorial is trying to show appreciation for its staff, including by thanking them and acknowledging the work they have done and by offering financial support when they agree to take on extra work as their colleagues get sick.
A national survey of health care workers in 2020 by the American Medical Association found that about half of those who responded had burnout, but the odds of burnout were 40% lower in those who felt valued by their organizations. Over 20,000 physicians and other workers participated in the poll, according to the association.
Memorial, like other health care providers, continues to encourage community members to get vaccinated to reduce their risk of hospitalization and to take precautions like wearing a face covering in public to reduce their risk of exposure.
“All those things to decrease your risk of getting sick, that helps our staff keep their hope alive that they’re really serving the community because the community is doing their part as well as us doing our part,” Halloran said.
