Alberta health-care workers exhausted, traumatized as COVID-19 hospitalizations surge

After more than a year battling to treat and save patients on the front lines of the pandemic, many health-care workers are exhausted, traumatized and burned out.

As the third wave drags on, COVID-19 hospitalizations are surging and there are record numbers of critically ill patients needing care.

"It feels sad and it feels like a marathon that we have to get through," said Dr. Neeja Bakshi, internal medicine specialist and COVID-19 unit physician at Edmonton's Royal Alexandra Hospital.

For Bakshi, the latest wave — punctuated by younger, sicker patients — has been daunting. And it comes just months after the spike in December that left her struggling.

"I had not processed anything that I saw, that I witnessed, that I went through. And so it came out as anger. It came out as apathy, particularly toward my family," said Bakshi.

"I remember saying to a friend there's nothing in this world that is bringing me joy at this moment."

She sought counselling and was diagnosed with PTSD.

Now as the third wave swells, Bakshi, who is the division lead for internal medicine at her hospital, is hearing from other health-care workers with similar stories. 

"[They] said we are going through the same thing you are. We don't know how to express it. We don't know how to say it," she said.

"There's so many people affected by this, and it's affecting them to the point of not picking up shifts, not wanting to work, taking stress leaves."

More patients, less time

The latest COVID-19 surge is playing out differently in hospitals.

It comes at a time when staff are already exhausted both emotionally and physically. Patients are younger and deteriorating more quickly. And staffing shortages are more acute.

"What it feels like is … anxiety about coming into work, dread about not being able to meet the care needs of your patients," said Matthew Douma, Edmonton emergency room nurse and adjunct professor of critical care medicine at the University of Alberta.

Nurses, he said, are being asked to care for more patients with less time.

"You care so much. You try so hard. You're set up to fail.… And you take that home with you. And then you have to get up the next day and put yourself in that same scenario."

Douma said nurses who were already seeing the effects of the ongoing opioid crisis when the pandemic hit are facing a traumatizing amount of death. 

"Some nurses are seeing a career's worth of death in a couple of years," he said.

More doctors, nurses seeking help

All this leaves health-care workers grappling with a great deal of moral distress, according to Dr. Shannon Ruzycki, internal medicine specialist and the associate director of physician wellness and vitality at the University of Calgary's Cumming School of Medicine.

"They're not able to do the best for patients because there are so many people, there isn't as much room, there aren't as many nurses that can help out, there aren't as many physicians as we need," she said.

"We are seeing higher rates of burnout, anxiety and mental health issues kind of boiling up during the pandemic."

The Alberta Medical Association said it, too, is seeing an increasing number people reaching out for help.

According to the AMA, 196 physicians requested mental health supports through its physician and family support program between September and December of 2019. That number jumped by 39 per cent to 272 between January and April of 2021.

Amid all this, hospitalizations and ICU admissions are expected to grow in the coming weeks, increasing the pressure on health-care workers and potentially pushing hospitals to their breaking point. 

"I'm not sure we're going to be the same after this," said Douma.