Healthcare Workers, Heal Thyselves: Coping With Burnout During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Stress is a part of daily life for most healthcare professionals. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began over three months ago, stress levels have risen exponentially for many pathologists and laboratory professionals who are on the front lines fighting the deadly virus.

Kimberle Chapin, MD, FCAP, DABMM, especially feels the strain. “I definitely haven’t slept more than four hours in a row on any night for the last two and a half months,” says Dr. Chapin, Director of Microbiology for Lifespan Academic Medical Center in Rhode Island, where she oversees a staff of 56 and has seven COVID testing platforms in her laboratories. (There are four sites working 24/7.)

Part of this exhaustion, she explains, is that Lifespan is the major healthcare system in the state. So, almost all of the COVID patients are admitted to Lifespan, which conducts
about 85 percent of the micro testing statewide.

Dr. Chapin is on the phone for work from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. and often receives work-related calls in the middle of the night. “I go home so exhausted that I just sit on the couch and fall asleep,” she says.  On weekends, it’s been calls with the Department of Health and the governor’s liaison office to try and set up additional testing for the state, calls from the ED, incident command center, or the labs, says Dr. Chapin, who is also Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and of Medicine at Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University.

“Like Dr. Sheldon Campbell (director of the Providence VA Healthcare System) sang in a great video and song that he wrote, I feel like ‘every patient is mine.’ It sums up rather well how most laboratory people feel when asked about being behind the scenes. I feel so much pressure to do the best I can do,” she says, adding, “I know I need to exercise to relax, but it’s difficult to find the time or the energy.”

“I have been very fortunate to be part of a micro team that keeps on plugging and is very supportive of each other, friends that call to go for a walk, offer to go grocery shopping, others that drop off a meal, and sisters that call or text and make me laugh,” Dr. Chapin says. “These little things are precious, and you can’t help but feel uplifted.  But of my three sons, all far away, one has had to cancel his wedding at our house in June and two sons in the military are getting deployed. I will not get to see them before they leave. Like so many others, COVID outside of work is zapping me as well. So, while I am plopped on the couch, I have been drawing cartoons throughout the chaos as mini perspective pieces to hopefully make us laugh six months from now. Also, I do run at least three times a week, although much, much slower these days.”

The world we are living in has changed dramatically over the past several months, and healthcare professionals—including pathologists and laboratory professionals—find it difficult to create a balance between work and home life.

They are dedicated to their patients, but are working in an environment many have never seen before. Operating rooms have been converted into ICUs and have been full of patients. These workers are putting in extremely long hours, often with inadequate protective gear, seeing colleagues get sick, and worried that they may pass the highly contagious virus along to their family members. For many, it is also taking a toll on their mental health.

Aaron Odegard, MS,MLS(ASCP)^CMSM^CM , a medical laboratory scientist in the infectious diagnostics laboratory at Baptist Health, a community-based health system in Jacksonville, Fla., is a strong advocate for taking care of one’s mental health. He advises colleagues to “remember that you are doing everything you can to support patients. It’s easy to think about what you could have done. It’s important to keep in mind that what you are doing really matters,” he says.

Once his health system began treating COVID-19 patients, most elective procedures were postponed, and Baptist Health’s molecular group ramped up its COVID-19 testing. While Mr. Odegard’s work schedule didn’t change drastically, he has seen a number of colleagues take on a daunting work load. One colleague works her day job at his hospital and then volunteers on days off with the state public health department where she does COVID-19 testing.

Of his colleagues, he says, “Our infectious diagnostics group is a very seasoned group of professionals, so whenever they see a member of our team is getting overwhelmed or stressed, someone will offer to take something off their plate. Within our group, it’s just innate for them to do that. But, I have a good friend at a major healthcare system who gets stressed and has to ask a colleague for support on his work load.”

To care for his own physical and mental well-being, Mr. Odegard adheres to a routine that includes running after work, using a meditation app such as Head Space, that offers five-minute meditations, making a healthy dinner, and keeping in contact with his sister via text messaging several times a week. His involvement with the Council of Laboratory Professionals and a mentorship program through ASCP gives him a sense of purpose during this time. “Having a routine provides a sense of control in a time when we don’t know what will happen,” he says.

Are you feeling extremely stressed out taking care of others during this COVID-19 pandemic? The ASCP Leadership Institute is offering a free, online course on recognizing and managing the symptoms of Burnout. The course encourages participants to assess their own levels of burnout to gain insight into what their contributing factors may be and strategies for coping. Check out the ASCP COVID-19 Resource web page to learn about the Burnout course and other offerings that can support you during this pandemic.