Health Care Professionals and Compassion Fatigue

Credit: Snarky Nurses on Instagram

Well, it's September. 2021.

Last year at this time, many of us health care professionals were full of hope. Covid numbers were on the decline. A vaccine was on the horizon. Our lives (at work) were starting to look more normal (no more mandatory overtime, no more floating to units where we weren't trained). We were even able to start (cautiously) hanging out with friends again. 

But, that didn't last long.

A year later, we are neck deep in the fourth wave of this pandemic. The third wave was bad enough, but, to have to do this AGAIN, after all the steps we took to prevent another one...well, it SUCKS. And, it's all your fault. 

Last Spring (2020), we told everyone to mask up and stay home. We said, "Hey! Our hospitals are full and our nurses are getting sick and everyone is tired and overworked". You ignored us. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Americans died from complications of Covid in the first 6 months of the pandemic. 

In late Fall 2020, we said, "Hmmmm. We're starting to get more positive patients again. And, more of our staff is coming down with Covid. Please WEAR YOUR MASKS and avoid large gatherings over the holidays. You ignored us. Again. And, in the second wave, we lost even more of our parents, siblings, children, friends and neighbors. I personally know someone who lost two siblings and a parent in a two-week span back in January. It was terrible, but good news was on the horizon.

In March 2021, we had exciting news for our patients! Two safe and very effective vaccines were approved for the community (most of us HCPs had received our vaccines in December and January). Open to those 16 and older! Hallelujah! But, only 30-40% of you decided to follow the science and get your vaccines. That wasn't enough and now, we are waging war, yet again, on a very deadly variant in a fourth wave of this pandemic. 

Many nurses, doctors and other health care professionals (HCPs) are dealing with compassion fatigue as it relates to the unvaccinated population. The ones who deliberately ignored us for all those months. It's frustrating, because it could have been avoided. If people had chosen to listen to us instead of Fox News or You Tube or ridiculous conspiracy theories surrounding the virus and the vaccine. If everyone had gotten vaccinated in spring, we would not be seeing all these hospitalizations. There would still be the breakthrough cases, of course, because no vaccine or medication is 100% full proof. NONE. But, it wouldn't be this bad, not even close. And, it's difficult to have empathy for a population who had zero empathy for the millions of people (globally) who have succumbed to this virus so far. Because you ignored us. And, now, you and/or your loved ones, are sick, and you come to our hospitals and expect us to take care of you. To save you. You trust us enough to do that, but not to try to prevent it in the first place. Will we do it? Of course. That's what we do. But, we might not be happy about it. We're overworked. We're tired. And, some of us (maybe many of us) are angry. Other people are now dying because we don't have the capacity to admit and care for them because you people are filling up our hospitals. I am hearing endless stories from nurses all over the country who have had stroke patients, STEMI (heart attack) patients, cancer patients, die in ERs, waiting for beds or life saving surgeries. Most or all of these particular patients took the measures to vaccinate themselves and yet, they are still going to die. And, Covid WILL be partly responsible, because its those patients using up the resources. Those people who chose not to mask, not to social distance and not to vaccinate. It's infuriating. 

Not getting vaccinated is selfish. PERIOD. It's not "my body, my choice" when it affects an entire community, an entire planet. And, spare me the bullcrap about your rights and freedoms. We have nurses working 2-3 extra shifts per week (that's 60+ hours), taking unsafe patient loads, and sacrificing sleep, self-care and time with their families, and you have the audacity to complain about your freedoms??? You can piss off with all that. People are dying. ⁠Either from Covid itself or because Covid patients are using up all medical resources. Wear your masks. Stay home unless absolutely necessary. And, for the love of God, GET VACCINATED. Most of you claim to be pro-life. But, refusing this vaccine is the antithesis of that, because over 4.5 million people have died, globally, from this virus (see: https://covid19.who.int). That makes you a HYPOCRITE. 

Get vaccinated. Wear your mask. Stay safe in public. Let's protect our community and lets lessen the burden on our health care workers. 

And, to my fellow HCPs: THANK YOU. I know we still have an uphill battle, but, we will prevail. My compassion lies with all of you. Stay well and remember to give yourself grace. I pray you can find peace among this chaos. 💛