We cannot protect the public without protecting frontline workers.
Health care providers can and should find ways to support, manage, and protect patient-facing workers “with more than masks,” according to a recent article in Health Affairs. The authors suggest that providers:
- Prioritize the need for personal protective equipment. Continue to raise your voice about the need to make equipment like N-95 masks available to protect health workers. Unfortunately, shortages and hoarding will limit these efforts.
- Offer financial protection: The protections available to the 9/11 emergency responders could offer a helpful model. “Current health care workers should immediately be offered the same protections from their employers or governments,” write the authors.
- Encourage infected workers to self-isolate: If workers face fears about unpaid sick leave or financial burdens, they may be less likely to stay home.
- Test workers: Prioritize testing, when it becomes more widely available, for symptomatic health care employees or those who have been exposed. This may help to reduce the workforce shortage if the infection spreads among workers.
- Offer respite: Develop organizational strategies for worker respite, including preventing excessively long shifts, maintaining access to breaks, and providing assurance that members of worker households will be cared for if they become infected.
“Our frontline health care workforce is among our most precious assets in this fight,” conclude the authors. “We cannot protect the public without protecting them.”