COVID-19 shows patient safety and health worker safety go hand in hand (2 November 2020)

Summary

Healthcare providers around the world are engaged in actions intended to enhance health, yet they regularly put themselves at risk in order to care for their patients. Working in stressful health care environments can make this burden worse.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought these dangers to an entirely new level, revealing how risks to health workers risk patient health and safety in turn. Creating a safe space for health-care workers has never been more important.

Today, health workers worry about being infected with the novel coronavirus themselves and contributing to the spread of the virus at work, at home, or in their communities.Health workers have also had to work with limited access or adherence to personal protective equipment (PPE) and other infection prevention and control measures. They’ve had to be flexible and resilient in the face of ever-changing and evolving work policies and practices.

Such stressors take a toll on the well-being and safety of our health providers. And that’s not good for patients, as Ivy Bourgeault and Chris Power explores in this article.