The burden of being a healthcare worker

Frontline workers were the backbone of the workforce throughout the height of the pandemic. Healthcare workers, especially, were juggling an influx of patients and a shortage of staff.

Ahead of International Nurses Day on 12 May, Sana Health Group is calling on healthcare workers to make their wellbeing a priority.

According to a statement from Sana Health Group, the pandemic created mental health issues for plenty of frontline healthcare workers. In fact, according to a study by Monash University, 60 per cent of healthcare workers reported moral distress and 60 per cent felt that excluding family from seeing patients went against their values.

Sana Health Group said these issues helped to create mental health problems in the healthcare sector. In response to this, Georgie Blundell, chief executive of Sana Health Group, will be climbing Mont Blanc in the French Alps in June to raise money for charity.

Sana Health Group has also partnered with Healthcare Heartbeat in a bid to promote better mental health support for healthcare workers.

“Having spent 10 years as a frontline healthcare worker, I know how important this workforce is to our community, and it’s been a really difficult few years for them. This is an important way that we could give back to nurses and emergency services workers and invest into their mental fitness,” said Ms Blundell.

Katheryn Curnow, organiser of Healthcare Heartbeat’s Reflect, Reset & Renew program, said that together, both organisations would be able to support overwhelmed healthcare workers.

“We understand that healthcare workers and first responders have been working under challenging conditions for some time. Even though the worst of the COVID-19 constraints may have passed for many, resourcing continues to be an issue which compels the need – be it explicit or perceived – for available staff to work through scheduled breaks and frequently work overtime,” Ms Curnow said.

“Our team at Healthcare Heartbeat are proud to have partnered with Sana Health Group to raise money that will go directly towards delivering initiatives that are essential in ensuring that healthcare workers remain physically and mentally healthy.”

Ms Curnow added: “Achieving a sustainable shift in wellbeing requires an intentional and integrated approach to circumvent years of ingrained habits and unhelpful ways of working. The compulsion to ‘push through’ is not sustainable and is not only detrimental to performance but a keyway to fast-track burnout.”