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40 • TLC—For the Workplace
suffered civilian Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), as they have endured their hardships like warriors on the battlefield. These unusual conditions and departures from common practices and cultural norms not only take a huge emotional toll on the decedents’ families but also on the doctors and nurses who struggle in vain to save their lives.
Unavailable PPE
(Personal Protective Equipment) and Other
Devices
The United States and the world could not have pre- pared for the nature and magnitude of a pandemic like COVID-19—a sometimes invisible illness that manifests in different ways. Health care providers (as well as the general population) have no way of knowing which of their patients is ill with the virus versus those who pres- ent themselves with completely unrelated conditions. For these reasons, scientists and infectious disease specialists have emphasized the use of masks, but the scarcity of per- sonal protective equipment (PPE) and other device avail- abilities (e.g. ventilators) have, in some cases, put pres- sure on health care workers to improvise or do without. Fortunately, that has changed, with the help of the federal and state governments and even ordinary people who just reach out to be an extension of God’s hand.
Economic Considerations
The medical profession has also suffered economical- ly. A number of patients are not seeing their doctors for checkups or regular physicals for fear of contracting the virus from their health care providers or other patients. If low-paid practitioners experience a third or less of their usual productivity, they will not be able to sustain them- selves financially. Without resources to pay staff and over- head, practices will, tragically, fail. This is not the case,