Take Care of In Order to Be Taken Care of

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Mr. Ahmet Kayhan Korkusuz, a first-year medical student at Istanbul Medipol University. He is affiliated to the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. The opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writer and do not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s view on the topic, nor The European Sting’s one.

The Healthcare System widely has a lot of workers such as doctors, nurses, paramedics, lab technicians, etc. It is not easy for those people, who dedicate themselves to deliver services to ailing people, to do their jobs every day. Most healthcare workers feel like they are in danger all the time in both psychological and physical ways – which is true. To be able to understand their situations you must know their risk factors which are physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic, and psychosocial.

At first, physical factors in working areas can be seen in different ways like ionizing radiation, indoor/outdoor pollutions, noise, etc. Those reasons make health workers feel tired and do their job less efficiently. There could be a lot of problems unless the governments and health institutes do not find solutions.

Secondly, the fact is that healthcare workers are exposed to the chemicals used in diagnosing and treating diseases. Thus, most of them could get infected or get immune to some diseases. No one can be sure how chemicals will affect them. Regrettably, there are a lot of health workers who died because of the SARS-COV-2 now.

Another important point is biological risk factors, which we have been experiencing since the first SARS-COV2 patient confirmed. It is possible to get infected because of the agents in the air like what happens at these times. While the health workers tell us ‘’Follow the rules of social distance ‘’ they are with the patients all the time. The one of downsides is that the health workers could cause their relatives to get infected, either.

Equally important another point is ergonomic factors. Most health workers are work in hard conditions, and this affects them both personally and how efficiently they do their job. To illustrate, there are some nurses who do extra works, carrying heavy stuff every day. As long as they keep doing the same, they will have some health problems such as low back pain, and it will affect their both personal and work life.

Last but not the least, the psychosocial problems mean it is possible for the health workers to have depression, feel like they burn out. For instance, all doctors are expected to save lives by the public. When they could not save them, they both got affected personally and by the public. Unfortunately, some relatives of patients try to hurt the doctors, threatening in some cases. Those cause the health workers to feel like they burn out.

All in all, being one of the health workers is not easy because they have a lot to deal with as mentioned. They are always with us against all their problems, and they will be, too. What should be done is to take care of the health workers in order to be taken care of at any time.

References

1. Joseph B, Joseph M. The health of the healt Occup Environ Med [serial online] 2016 [cited 2020Aug24];20:712.Availablefrom: http://www.ijoem.com/text.asp?2016/20/2/71/197518hcare workers. Indian J
2. Ulutasdemir N, Tanir F. Occupational Risks of Health Professionals [Internet]. IntechOpen. IntechOpen; 2017 [cited 2020Aug24]. Available from: https://www.intechopen.com/books/occupational-health/occupational-risks-of-health-professionals

About the author

Ahmet Kayhan Korkusuz is a first-year medical student at Istanbul Medipol University. He lives in Istanbul, Turkey and is a member of TURKMISC at his university. He always tries to improve himself, so he participates in most of the events of TURKMISC and EMSA. For the future, he wants to be a cardiologist and be part of Doctors WorldWide to be able to help more people as much as he can.