The COVID-19 pandemic had a colossal impact on the lives of individuals, organizations, businesses, countries, education, health care, and the entire world. The coronavirus crisis placed significant pressure on people’s values and beliefs since many systems started to fail or restructure. Moreover, it caused the deaths of millions of people and harmed the mental health of both the general population and frontline healthcare workers (Prazeres et al., 2021). For example, the survey among nurses in 1257 Chinese hospitals revealed that such issues as insomnia, anxiety, and depression were prevalent among clinicians (Prazeres et al., 2021). COVID-19 became a challenge for healthcare workers’ beliefs forcing them to simultaneously practice more safety measures to protect their own health and display empathy to their patients to improve outcomes.
One of the main problems raised during this crisis was personal safety for doctors and nurses, particularly those who worked directly with critically ill individuals. This issue was prominent early in the pandemic since hospitals experienced a severe shortage of personal protective equipment (Weber, 2020). Furthermore, the vaccines were unavailable back then because they were at the stage of development and testing. Therefore, many healthcare workers developed fear and anxiety about being infected with the virus, which certainly had a damaging effect on their productivity (Prazeres et al., 2021). Many started questioning their duties, obligations, and even religious beliefs. Notably, it was found that religiosity had no significant effect on clinicians’ ability to cope with stress during the pandemic (Prazeres et al., 2021). Although many of my colleagues and I believe in God, we had the same frustration and angst with the system and the overall situation in our departments as our atheist counterparts. The main reason we all felt unease was likely the tremendous pressure from the number of ill individuals and the severity of their conditions.
At the same time, there was an increased need to express empathy and understanding to patients and their families because they had the same risks but may have had less information. Thus, shared decision-making was essential, especially during the COVID-19 crisis, to attain better health outcomes by educating people about the best available evidence-based methods and convince about the importance of vaccination (Taylor et al., 2022). As a nurse, I had to discuss with patients not only their disease states, diagnostic methods, and management options but also their fears and concerns. My belief about the importance of communication remained the same before and during the pandemic. However, I started to practice more precautions in terms of self-protection by converting communication with the hospitalized individuals to video calls or web chats if the situation allowed. COVID-19 made me realize that patients’ autonomy and dignity are equally crucial in ordinary times and during crises. Hence, it is our obligation, as healthcare workers, to respect their rights regardless of the circumstances. Overall, the pandemic made me understand that shared decision-making and patient support do not exclude the importance of personal safety for clinicians.
In summary, the coronavirus pandemic was not only an immense challenge for healthcare systems and governments but also a force that made people reconsider their values and beliefs. Healthcare workers were under increased pressure due to an enormous number of ill individuals. Thus, many nurses and doctors became anxious and depressed at work, questioning their duties. Indeed, my coworkers and I feared being infected with the virus; still, we expanded emotional support and communication with the patients by practicing appropriate personal protection measures and using technology.
References
Prazeres, F., Passos, L., Simões, J. A., Simões, P., Martins, C., & Teixeira, A. (2021). COVID-19-related fear and anxiety: Spiritual-religious coping in healthcare workers in Portugal.International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(1), 1-11.
Taylor, K. S., Hladek, M. D., Elias, S. D., Jenkins, E., Robinson, K. N., Smith, O. W., & Szanton, S. L. (2022). Lessons from COVID-19: Time for shared decision making in nursing practice. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 78(11), 147–149.
Weber, E. (2020). Ethics and personal safety on the frontlines of COVID-19. American Nurse.