{"id":21071,"date":"2021-01-29T11:32:57","date_gmt":"2021-01-29T11:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/?p=477871"},"modified":"2021-01-29T11:32:57","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T11:32:57","slug":"nhs-staff-burned-out-and-desperately-sad-after-a-year-of-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/29\/nhs-staff-burned-out-and-desperately-sad-after-a-year-of-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"NHS staff \u2018burned out\u2019 and \u2018desperately sad\u2019 after a year of Covid-19"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A year fighting coronavirus (Covid-19) has left medical staff \u201cburned out\u201d, \u201cfatigued\u201d and \u201cdesperately sad\u201d, according to one nurse.<\/p>\n<p>Since the first death in the UK a year ago on Saturday, many doctors, nurses and other frontline workers have been immersed in the battle against Covid-19.<\/p>\n<p>Joanne Morrell, an intensive care nurse at the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, said she would not have believed back in March when she first started working with Covid patients that she and her colleagues would still be dealing with the pandemic nearly a year later.<\/p>\n<p><!-- EMBED START Image --><\/p>\n<figure id=\"embedded253462615\"><img src=\"https:\/\/image.assets.pressassociation.io\/v2\/image\/production\/5da5ab6ebd66381341b9652a6a69623eY29udGVudHNlYXJjaCwxNjEyMDA0Mjk5\/2.53462615.jpg?w=640\" sizes=\"(max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/image.assets.pressassociation.io\/v2\/image\/production\/5da5ab6ebd66381341b9652a6a69623eY29udGVudHNlYXJjaCwxNjEyMDA0Mjk5\/2.53462615.jpg?w=178 178w, https:\/\/image.assets.pressassociation.io\/v2\/image\/production\/5da5ab6ebd66381341b9652a6a69623eY29udGVudHNlYXJjaCwxNjEyMDA0Mjk5\/2.53462615.jpg?w=713 713w\" alt=\"Joanne Morrell, a nurse from Huddersfield\" data-title=\"Joanne Morrell, a nurse from Huddersfield\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Media\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Media\" data-credit=\"Joanne Morrell\" data-usage-terms=\"PICTURE DESK USE ONLY. NO SALES\" \/><figcaption>Joanne Morrell is \u2018in disbelief\u2019 at how bad the situation still is (Joanne Morrell\/PA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><!-- EMBED END Image --><\/p>\n<h5>Disbelief<\/h5>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve got through it but I just don\u2019t know how we have,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m in disbelief really that it\u2019s still continuing because I recall, when we got our first (Covid patients) back in March, thinking this will be a few weeks, it\u2019ll all be over and done with, storm in a teacup.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen as it continued, I thought by the end of the summer, definitely done\u2026 by Christmas time, absolutely gone.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd here we are, the year later, in the January, and still doesn\u2019t seem to be any closer to this ending any time soon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Morrell, 47, said that the hardest aspect of working during the pandemic has been witnessing \u201cthe people that are dying unnecessarily\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>She said: \u201cI can deal with stress, I can deal with busy \u2013 I\u2019ve worked in A&amp;E and I\u2019ve worked in really busy areas, oncology and assessment units \u2013 but it\u2019s the sadness.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re all burned out, we\u2019re all fatigued, but we are also desperately sad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"fWMVaLEoRT0C31BtQ4dAv6Dj\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Moaning about wearing a face covering for a short time?? Come join me and my colleagues for a 12.5hr shift in all this and anything compared will be a dream. So if you are one of those whining, please STOP!! You are protecting and saving lives FGS <img src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/13.0.0\/72x72\/1f644.png\" alt=\"?\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" \/> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NoMasks?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NoMasks<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fhfvxU9S65\">pic.twitter.com\/fhfvxU9S65<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; JoMo <img src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/13.0.0\/72x72\/1f41d.png\" alt=\"?\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" \/> <img src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/13.0.0\/72x72\/1f499.png\" alt=\"?\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" \/><img src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/13.0.0\/72x72\/1f499.png\" alt=\"?\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" \/><img src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/13.0.0\/72x72\/1f499.png\" alt=\"?\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" \/> (@bumblebee2907) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bumblebee2907\/status\/1283000871887003648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 14, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/span><\/p>\n<p><!-- EMBED START Twitter --><\/p>\n<figure>\n<h5><span style=\"font-size: inherit; font-weight: 400;\">She added:<\/span><\/h5>\n<\/figure>\n<blockquote><p>When we had the highest death rate, and in one day more people died in this country than in the whole of the pandemic in Australia, that actually broke my heart.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: inherit; color: #000000;\">How\u2019s it got to this point? How have we got to over 100,000 people dead? How?\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h5>A steep learning curve<\/h5>\n<p>The last year has been a steep learning curve for healthcare professionals, not just in terms of Covid-19 itself but also in establishing new working processes and dealing with unexpected issues.<\/p>\n<p>Zahid Chauhan, a GP in Oldham, observed:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>On one side you\u2019re trying to save patients and care for patients, and on the other side you\u2019re trying to set up new systems. Third side (is) trying to educate your colleagues \u2013 clinicians and non-clinicians \u2013 to work using technology, fourth side you\u2019re trying to educate patients to seek help in a different way.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: inherit; color: #000000;\">Then among all those things you also have a personal life, family, children \u2013 think about them, think about how it\u2019s impacting on them \u2013 and somehow build up your own resilience and your own coping mechanism as well.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><!-- EMBED START Image --><\/p>\n<figure id=\"embedded257516042\"><img src=\"https:\/\/image.assets.pressassociation.io\/v2\/image\/production\/122c79d01cd797d4b8fe5032bec43289Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaCwxNjEyMDA0NDUx\/2.57516042.jpg?w=640\" sizes=\"(max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/image.assets.pressassociation.io\/v2\/image\/production\/122c79d01cd797d4b8fe5032bec43289Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaCwxNjEyMDA0NDUx\/2.57516042.jpg?w=320 320w, https:\/\/image.assets.pressassociation.io\/v2\/image\/production\/122c79d01cd797d4b8fe5032bec43289Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaCwxNjEyMDA0NDUx\/2.57516042.jpg?w=640 640w, https:\/\/image.assets.pressassociation.io\/v2\/image\/production\/122c79d01cd797d4b8fe5032bec43289Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaCwxNjEyMDA0NDUx\/2.57516042.jpg?w=1280 1280w\" alt=\"Zahid Chauhan, a GP from Oldham\" data-title=\"Zahid Chauhan, a GP from Oldham\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Peter Byrne\" data-usage-terms=\"\" \/><figcaption>Zahid Chauhan said there has been a lot to deal with over the course of the year (Peter Byrne\/PA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><!-- EMBED END Image --><\/p>\n<p>GPs have also seen an increased workload, in part taking on some of the work that hospitals are too overrun to do, and also dealing with the fallout of the pandemic and lockdown, including a rise in mental health issues.<\/p>\n<h5>&#8220;We haven&#8217;t got capacity&#8221;<\/h5>\n<p>That means some patients with less urgent health issues are sometimes struggling to speak to a doctor, which can lead to frustration.<\/p>\n<p>Emily Ball, a GP in north-west England and an EveryDoctor team member, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-size: inherit;\">They (less urgent patients) do need help but we haven\u2019t got the capacity to give them that. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: inherit; color: #000000;\">So we\u2019re struggling and we\u2019re trying to get through as much as we can every day, and our staff get a huge amount of abuse on the phone\u2026 people are really rude to our staff, really quite abusive.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: inherit; color: #000000;\">It\u2019s taking its toll on everyone in a variety of ways and I think people are losing the capacity to be kind to each other \u2013 and I think because we see people at their worst, when they\u2019re at their most desperate, we cop quite a lot of it.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But Ball cited an increased sense of unity between primary and secondary healthcare professionals as one of the positives to come from the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>And Morrell said she was \u201csuper proud\u201d of the work she and her NHS colleagues had done.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHonestly after these last 11 months I\u2019ve never felt so close to my colleagues,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I feel very lucky \u2013 I don\u2019t want that to sounds contrived because it\u2019s such an awful time \u2013 but it has brought out the very, very best in the NHS for sure.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>Story and image via Press Association<\/em><!-- TRACKING END GA --><\/p>\n<p>By <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/author\/thecanary\/\">The Canary<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/uk\/2021\/01\/29\/nhs-staff-burned-out-and-desperately-sad-after-a-year-of-covid-19\/\">The Canary<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A year fighting coronavirus (Covid-19) has left medical staff \u201cburned out\u201d, \u201cfatigued\u201d and \u201cdesperately sad\u201d, according to one nurse. Since the first death in \u2026 <\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/uk\/2021\/01\/29\/nhs-staff-burned-out-and-desperately-sad-after-a-year-of-covid-19\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<\/a><\/div>\n<p>By <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/author\/thecanary\/\">The Canary<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1541,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1395,5655],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21071"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1541"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21071"}],"version-history":[{"count":49,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28808,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21071\/revisions\/28808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}