Our recent global pandemic has caused so much damage on the world mentally, physically, and economically. COVID-19 has disrupted global economies and daily life. Throughout the pandemic, healthcare workers were worked to the bone. The new variants such as Omicron created more issues and rises in healthcare news. Because of the dying need and usage of healthcare workers, this led to a shortage of staff.

COVID-19 isn’t 100% to blame on the shortage of staff, but it definitely played a role. Other elements include retirement of older nurses, PTSD among healthcare workers, and paid days off. But because of COVID-19 and the insane amount of admitted patients, healthcare workers, especially nurses, were needed.

Nurses are probably the best healthcare workers in this field. Nurses are the forefront of the healthcare system. They pass medication, collaborate with doctors, coordinate with families, focus on patient and family care, monitor labs, and sometimes even act as a therapist. 

They vary with the amount of patients they care for at a time. ICU nurses care for 1-2, Oncology/Hospice nurses care for 5. However, because of staff shortages, these numbers rise. Some of the many jobs a nurse has to do is monitor their patients, being alert, and being able to make important, quick decisions. But how can nurses do their job and keep patients safe when they have to be so many people at once?

With COVID-19 cases decrease, however there are still many cases, healthcare workers have proper PPE and every nurse handles a reasonable amount of patients. If a healthcare worker does however catch COVID, they are allowed to take 10 days off (Each facility is different).

With COVID-19, it allowed people’s true colors to show and what they believe to be important. Healthcare workers were abused and overworked during these times taking care of not only themselves, but everybody around them. During the pandemic, protective equipment such as gowns, goggles, n95’s, etc, were scarce, which left healthcare workers worried. Would they be protected from this deadly virus? Even during those times, healthcare workers put their lives at risk to help everybody around them, and did everything they could to save as many lives.

We seriously don’t give nurses enough credit for what they deserve and what they were able to provide for us during the pandemic. Even though they were worked to the bone, they still gave us their all. The pandemic scarred the world, but to be a healthcare worker during the pandemic was a whole different level.