SUPPORT FOR HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS

As a healthcare provider, you are currently being asked to do the impossible; respond to a pandemic crisis in your hospital setting while attending to your family and overload at home.

Surging Covid-19 cases are driving new demands for staffing. Continuing at this pace and demand, is not sustainable. The prevalence of extremes of exhaustion, compassion fatigue, burnout and PTSD, is akin to what deployed soldiers experience in war zones. As a healthcare provider, you are being forced to choose between your work and your family, and ultimately, your own health. 

While it is impossible to eradicate job related stress injury due to Covid-19, the resources provided below can help mitigate the escalation of symptoms. "Deployment" planning and communication are vital for successfully navigating the current conditions. 

Deployment Planning Tools

Covid Sick Plan Checklist

Covid Depletion Plan

Deployment Letter

Deployment Planning for Hospitals

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The Stress Continuum

Personal reactions to increased complexities in healthcare fall on a continuum. You may feel little to no impact, or you may feel an increased stress response. When stress is ongoing or severe, this can lead to severe distress, burnout, or traumatic responses. Personal experiences, support systems, coping mechanisms, external stressors, early life experiences, and the length of time we have felt increased stress can contribute to where we fall on the continuum of reactions. 

Expect that where you are on this continuum can change. It’s also important to remember that people will react differently to the same situation, and that is ok.  

Know that: 

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• What you are feeling and experiencing matters

• It’s likely that many people are feeling similar

• There are resources—and people—to help you

Stress Continuum Message for Leadership During Covid-19

For Help and Available Resources for Healthcare Providers 

Click on the Image Below 

**Mental Health Support for Frontline Workers in Covid-19**

Podcast - Mind the Brain: Managing During Uncertainty

From the CU Anchutz Department of Psychiatry, Dr. Neill Epperson and Laura McGladrey discuss the concept of managing our expectations during a pandemic and coping with our new normal.

Podcast - Crazed - We Got This: First Responder Stress and Resilience for COVID-19

From the National Mental Health Innovation Center’s podcast Crazed: Big ideas to radically change mental health.

Podcast - The Ten Percent Happier – How to Handle Coronavirus Anxiety

Matt Zuckerman, MD @matthew608b, Laura McGladrey, PMHNP, FNP, MSN, RN, FAWM @responderalliance, and Emilie Calvello Hynes, MD, MPH @ejbcalvello all faculty at University of Colorado School of Medicine discussing Stress First Aid for frontline responders in the age of COVID-19

Podcast - "Ready for the Fight" - Stress First Aid for COVID-19 First Responders

Matt Zuckerman, MD @matthew608b, Laura McGladrey, PMHNP, FNP, MSN, RN, FAWM @responderalliance, and Emilie Calvello Hynes, MD, MPH @ejbcalvello all faculty at University of Colorado School of Medicine discussing Stress First Aid for frontline responders in the age of COVID-19

Podcast - Depletion: Stress First Aid for COVID-19 First Responders_Episode 4 

In this episode we talk about where we are now, depletion. Talking about stress first aid strategies and ways to get through this together. 

• Matt Zuckerman, MD @matthew608b

• Laura McGladrey, PMHNP, FNP, MSN, RN, FAWM @responderalliance

• Emilie Calvello Hynes, MD, MPH @ejbcalvello 

All faculty at University of Colorado School of Medicine

Podcast - Depletion: Stress First Aid for COVID-19 First Responders_Episode 5 

In this episode we talk about the mission we're currently on, and how it feels like we're in a never ending deployment but we never got started right. Have you sent out a deployment letter. How are you managing during this deployment? What can leaders do to recognize the current disaster mode many are in. 

• Matt Zuckerman, MD @matthew608b

• Laura McGladrey, PMHNP, FNP, MSN, RN, FAWM @responderalliance

• Emilie Calvello Hynes, MD, MPH @ejbcalvello 

All faculty at University of Colorado School of Medicine

Podcast - Surge Capacity

Steve Berkowitz and Laura McGladery, Clinicians with the START (Stress Trauma Research and Treatment Center) at CU Anschutz Medical Center, discuss occupational injuries suffered by healthcare workers during the pandemic crisis. Laura explains the Stress Continuum Model as a system for self-care and a common language for Frontline workers and First Responders to manage job related trauma. 

Understanding and Addressing Sources of Anxiety Among Health Care Professionals During the COVID-19 Pandemic Tait Shanafelt, MD1; Jonathan Ripp, MD, MPH2; Mickey Trockel, MD, PhD1

Before effective approaches to support health care professionals can be developed, it is critical to understand their specific sources of anxiety and fear. Focusing on addressing those concerns, rather than teaching generic approaches to stress reduction or resilience, should be the primary focus of support efforts. This Viewpoint summarizes key considerations for supporting the health care workforce so health care professionals are equipped to provide care for their patients and communities.