August 25, 2021 – The combination of a 17-month long pandemic and the recent surge of the Delta variant has created a pressure chamber effect where healthcare workers are in short supply.
Staffing shortages is the latest effect of COVID-19, as exhausted and burnt-out healthcare workers are either retiring early or finding a new line of work. The New York Times recently published a report on the nursing shortages in hospitals throughout the country, which will ultimately put patients at greater risk.
As frontline works continue to leave hospitals, it creates a larger domino effect that affects the quality of care that these patients need to recover.
Andrew Jacobs writes, “When hospitals lack nurses to treat those who need less intensive care, emergency rooms and I.C.U.s are unable to move out patients, creating a traffic jam that limits their ability to admit new ones.”
Because of the lack of proper equipment, rooms to house the equipment, and an adequate number of nurses to operate the equipment, hospitals are having to consider how to ration care among their most critically ill patients.
The rise of the Delta variant combined with the lack of trust in the COVID vaccines have created an untenable situation for healthcare workers that will have lasting impacts on the future of our healthcare system.