COVID-19 & Personal Beliefs/Values
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COVID-19 & Personal Beliefs/Values
The COVID-19 epidemic has had a profound and far-reaching impact on healthcare workers worldwide, presenting formidable challenges to our therapeutic methods and firmly held beliefs. I, too, have experienced this paradigm-shifting event as a healthcare provider.
The global pandemic has underlined the importance of flexibility and resilience in therapeutic practice. Healthcare providers must be flexible due to the pathogen's rapid spread and growing understanding (Filip et al., 2022). My belief in adaptation has grown. I now recognize the value of openness to new ideas and methods, even when they threaten conventions. My clinical decision-making process has become more flexible. I now appreciate the importance of accepting change, mainly when supported by empirical evidence and in light of the ever-changing healthcare landscape.
The pandemic has highlighted several ethical and moral difficulties that healthcare practitioners face. It reinforced my belief in patient-centered care. During the pandemic, resource distribution and triage decisions showed the importance of balancing patient care with collective well-being (Robert et al., 2020). I am now more dedicated to advocating for patients and their values, ensuring their constant presence in clinical discussions. A lack of resources is an example of this metamorphosis. During the pandemic, my team ran out of ventilators, forcing difficult decisions about their distribution. The seriousness of ventilator allocation parameters, which I actively participated in, left an unforgettable mark on me. We faced a difficult ethical dilemma: balancing the need to save as many lives as possible with personal autonomy and resource allocation. This experience strengthened my belief in patient-centered treatment and the need to promote our patients' ideals.
The global pandemic has also highlighted the significance of compassion and empathy in professional practice. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused physical illness and emotional distress in patients, their families, and healthcare workers (Gupta et al., 2021). I now understand the power of compassion to heal patients and their families and the need to support my colleagues. The global pandemic has reminded us that patients have unique experiences, apprehensions, and goals. This phenomenon was most evident when I took care of a COVID-19 patient who had been separated from their family for a long time due to visitation restrictions. The patient's mental discomfort was obvious, highlighting the need for medical assistance and emotional comfort. I tried to connect with the patient by listening to their concerns and offering comfort. I could not replace their loved ones, but my kindness and empathy greatly affected their mental health.
The rise in COVID-19 patients in our hospital shows the growing importance of collaboration (Gupta et al., 2021). The respected collaboration of nurses, physicians, respiratory therapists, and auxiliary staff collaborated to design and manage improvised critical care units. We shared our knowledge, skills, and resources to ensure patients received the best care under challenging conditions. This interaction demonstrated the power of therapeutic collaboration to overcome obstacles.
The pandemic has also forced me to rethink risk and clinical safety. I am acutely aware of infection control policies and my responsibilities to protect patients and fellow healthcare staff. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the fragility of human health and the importance of healthcare safety protocols. An example is the strict use of personal protective equipment (PPE) to prevent viral transmission. The global epidemic has highlighted the importance of strictly following infection control policies to protect patients and the renowned healthcare professionals who treat them. This dramatic experience has embedded a lifelong commitment to safety standards during pandemics and regular clinical practice.
References
Filip, R., Gheorghita Puscaselu, R., Anchidin-Norocel, L., Dimian, M., & Savage, W. K. (2022). Global Challenges to Public Health Care Systems during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review of Pandemic Measures and Problems. Journal of Personalized Medicine, 12(8), 1295. https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm12081295
Gupta, N., Dhamija, S., Patil, J., & Chaudhari, B. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers. Industrial Psychiatry Journal, 30(Suppl 1), S282–S284. https://doi.org/10.4103/0972-6748.328830
Robert, R., Kentish-Barnes, N., Boyer, A., Laurent, A., Azoulay, E., & Reignier, J. (2020). Ethical dilemmas due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Annals of Intensive Care, 10(1), NA–NA. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13613-020-00702-7