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Protected and connected Restoring humanity in healthcare for health workers and their patients burnout and cognitive overload before the pandemic — now it is amplified. We will see people with post-COVID stress disorder syndrome, it is real, and this is a global issue.” One of Dr Duffy’s major concerns is that people will choose to leave the healthcare profession in droves and people will choose to not enter nursing or medical school. “If we don’t fix the system issues, we will lose a generation of practitioners and that will cripple healthcare systems around the globe. We need to remove the preventable trauma and deploy technology that keeps people safe and enables them to do their jobs more easily, and we need to do it now.”
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rontline healthcare workers across the world are facing unimaginable challenges, pushing on to deliver care after 18 grueling months entrenched in the pandemic. Bridget Duffy, MD — Chief Medical Officer of Vocera Communications — has witnessed harrowing scenes in the US health system and is working to determine what healthcare leaders, governments and technology companies can do to protect the physical, emotional and psychological wellbeing of nurses, doctors and other frontline healthcare workers. “Healthcare workers are exhausted, burnt out and fearful of bringing COVID-19 home to their families,” Dr Duffy said. “Nurses in particular are at risk— they have the most direct, hands-on patient contact, and face the greatest risk of infection of all healthcare workers. In many scenarios, PPE has been inadequate, leaving nurses feeling unsafe in their working environment. “The fatigue that is setting in is not good. There was a public health crisis of
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If there’s anything positive to come from the pandemic, it’s the drive that propels the industry to move faster to design environments that protect and connect the healthcare workforce and restore joy amongst those in the profession. Dr Duffy explained that a new declaration of safety is being drafted to safeguard the physical and psychological safety of healthcare workers. The standard should focus on PPE as well as technology (PPET) that enables healthcare staff to communicate safely with colleagues, creating a connected care team through voice. “We need some basic standards around protecting the physical safety of our healthcare workforce, as well as those that ensure psychological and emotional wellbeing.” “We’re going to need to rebuild trust and put in assurances that we can protect the physical safety of healthcare workers. This is why the new Vocera Smartbadge has a dedicated panic button with real-time location and broadcast capabilities — if a nurse is subjected to violence, he or she can hit the panic button, which will broadcast to the local hospital security or the police,” Dr Duffy explained. “We want nurses and other front-line team
VOICE-ACTIVATED, HANDS-FREE TECHNOLOGY WOULD ENABLE THEM TO STAY SAFE, CONNECTED TO THEIR CARE TEAM AND AT THE BEDSIDE PROVIDING THE BEST POSSIBLE CARE TO PATIENTS.
