A new CDC report finds an increase in threats and verbal abuse directed at health care workers since the start of the pandemic. The harassment has been linked to high levels of anxiety, depression and burnout.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Health care workers across the country are facing a mental health crisis. A new survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that burnout, anxiety and depression among health care workers have worsened in the past five years. NPR’s Pien Huang reports.
PIEN HUANG, BYLINE: Sarah Warren started her nursing career at a Florida hospital in 2018. It was challenging from the start.
SARAH WARREN: Within my first six months as a nurse, I was actually strangled by a patient with my stethoscope.
HUANG: She continued to work through the height of the pandemic. She worked mandatory overtime, straining her body, turning and lifting patients three times her size. Over the next three years, she developed severe burnout and injuries.
WARREN: And I got to a point in late 2021 where I just didn’t recognise myself. I had given everything, emotionally and mentally, to this role.
HUANG: Warren’s experience of extreme stress and burnout is not unique.
CASEY CHOSEWOOD: To call our current and long-term challenge a crisis is an understatement.
HUANG: That’s Dr. Casey Chosewood, director of the CDC’s Office of Occupational Health.
CHOSEWOOD: Many of our nation’s health care systems are at breaking point.
HUANG: Chosewood is co-author of a new CDC survey that shows the mental health crisis has worsened during the pandemic. Nearly half of the health care workers surveyed reported burnout last year.
Dr. Deborah Houry, the CDC’s chief medical officer, says workplace harassment is also on the rise.
DEBRA HOURY: In health care, it could be threats of violence from patients, family members upset about a long wait – as well as frustration – but it increased. It almost doubled in that time.
HUANG: This harassment is linked to higher levels of anxiety, depression and burnout. Nearly half of health care workers said they were likely to look for a new job. The CDC is calling on health care systems to take immediate steps to address worker burnout by building trust with employees and increasing support from supervisors. Sarah Warren, the Florida nurse, says the field also needs new laws and standards. She left her nursing job in 2022 and misses it.
WARREN: What I would give to be able to just take care of my patients – but I can’t. And so many other health workers are in the same position. The system has put us there.
HUANG: She started a nonprofit organization to advocate for better conditions and mental health support for health care workers.
