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2 results

  • 3 - Risk, Responsibility, Resilience, Respect

  • from Part I - The Health Care System That COVID-19 Encountered
  • Edited by I. Glenn Cohen, Harvard Law School, Massachusetts, Abbe R. Gluck, Yale University, Connecticut, Katherine Kraschel, Yale University, Connecticut, Carmel Shachar, Harvard Law School, Massachusetts
  • Book:
    COVID-19 and the Law
    Published online:
    27 October 2023
    Print publication:
    09 November 2023, pp 42-57
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  • Summary

    Medicine and nursing have long professional traditions of altruism and self-sacrifice, including undertaking not only extreme stress but also personal risk in service of patient care. With exceptions for natural disasters, humanitarian missions, and military service, however, recent concerns about professional “burnout” often have had more to do with mismanagement, exploitation, and generational or technological change than with core clinical circumstances. The COVID-19 pandemic changed that – bringing front and center the close connections between the well-being of health care workers and the well-being of the patients they serve. This chapter begins with the COVID-19 experience of health care workers in New York City and environs during the spring of 2020, examining what happened, why things went wrong, and how it drew attention and generated responses. The chapter then steps back to consider the root causes of health professionals’ physical and psychological vulnerability and moral anguish, such as inequities within the health care system, professional hierarchies, discrimination, safety system failures, and problems with business and regulatory practices. The chapter concludes by offering a range of potential improvements, ranging from ethics and advocacy to corporate governance and labor organization to workplace redesign to legal reform.

  • Survey of Hospital Healthcare Personnel Response during a Potential Avian Influenza Pandemic: Will They Come to Work?

  • Charlene B. Irvin, Lauren Cindrich, William Patterson, Anthony Southall
  • Journal:
    Prehospital and Disaster Medicine / Volume 23 / Issue 4 / August 2008
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    28 June 2012, pp. 328-335
    Print publication:
    August 2008
  • Introduction:

    In order to prepare for pandemics, it is important to assess the likelihood that hospital personnel would report to work and to identify the issues that may affect this decision.

    Objective:

    To survey hospital personnel regarding their attendance at work in the hypothetical event of avian influenza pandemic, and what factors might influence this decision. Methods: A voluntary, confidential, institutional review board-approved survey was offered to a convenience sample of hospital workers regarding their willingness to report to work and what issues would be important in making this decision. Surveys not returned and individuals declining to participate were recorded.

    Results:

    Of 187 surveys offered, 169 were completed (90% response rate): 34% were doctors, 33% were nurses, and 33% were clerical and other associates (other). The average age of the participants was 38 years, and 32% were males. Participants were asked: “In the event of an avian pandemic, and patients were being treated at this hospital, would you report to work as usual?”. Of those who responded to the survey, 50% reported “yes”, 42% reported “maybe”, and 8% reported “no”. Doctors were more likely than nurses or others to respond “yes” (73%), as were males (66%). For the “maybe” responders, the most important factor (83%) was: “How confident I am that the hospital can protect me”. For 19% of the “maybe” responders, financial incentives would not make a difference for them to work, even up to triple pay.

    Conclusions:

    Personnel absenteeism during a pandemic due to fear of contracting an illness may result in a significant personnel shortage. Ensuring worker confidence in adequate personal protection may be more important than financial incentives.