Preparing for the Next Pandemic, Today: A Call to Action
SAEM PULSE | MARCH-APRIL 2022
By Al’ai Alvarez, MD, and León D. Sánchez, MD, MPH, on behalf of the SAEM Wellness Committee
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The latest Omicron surge pushed the emergency department (ED) infrastructure to limits we have never seen before. Our colleagues, and ourselves, became vulnerable to contracting this latest strain of COVID-19 virus not only at work but from everyday routines. We had to adapt quickly to this new set of challenges. Within two short weeks during the winter holiday break, significant numbers of our workforce contracted COVID-19. The CDC outlined new isolation measures to preserve the ability to provide care for the public. As we braced ourselves for another unprecedented surge, it was heartwarming to see our emergency departments take on more deliberate efforts to address our well-being. We hope to learn from this and urge everyone to create spaces to discuss these experiences as we forecast the recovery phase of the pandemic. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, so many of us pushed ourselves to extremes and never called in sick,
regardless of our state of being. In contrast, during the pandemic, referring to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we saw institutions subsidizing or offering free hotel stays for physicians who contracted COVID-19 or had family members at home with COVID19 and needed to isolate themselves from them in order to avoid catching the virus. Some institutions even sent care packages and offered mental health support. These measures allowed the effected to convalesce, heal, and catch up on much-needed sleep. Centralized information during times of chaos was critical. Our department relaunched weekly “COVID Chronicles” to update faculty, staff, and trainees on the latest information on testing, isolation, and other lessons learned. We also set up virtual listening sessions and gatherings to foster a sense of community and share stories and experiences. These gatherings reminded us that two years into this pandemic, childcare continues to be challenging, and the burden of shouldering this problem falls on our colleagues who are parents and, disproportionately,
women. Hearing about the stress and frustrations of others helped all of us to acknowledge the challenges many of our colleagues, mostly mothers, have been experiencing. Solutions were offered, such as creating pods to provide support and last-minute childcare, and a reminder from our medical director that the backup-call system is designed for emergencies (including last-minute childcare), helped mitigate the unrealistic expectations we held for ourselves. Our department also instituted shift forgiveness for the duration of the CDC five-day isolation period. It also helped to hear our leaders, including the chair, normalize expectations to mend and heal and take a break while on shift to clear our minds, grab a snack, and/or get some fresh air.
Taking Steps Toward Healing Yet we need to think beyond these short bursts of support to the longer term. Here are suggestions from members of the SAEM Wellness Committee. We acknowledge that some of these suggestions may not
