Letters | Post-Covid pandemic of loneliness among healthcare professionals needs attention
- Readers discuss how the pandemic has affected the mental health of those in the medical field, the impact of the loss of small businesses, and the need for better sex education in schools
In more ways than one, the Covid-19 pandemic has specifically affected healthcare professionals.
They have suffered greater rates of infection compared to the general population. The pandemic has also intensified healthcare professionals’ burnout, leading many to switch jobs. What has been somewhat neglected is that the pandemic has further pushed them into the depths of loneliness.
Medicine has long been a solitary profession. Healthcare professionals become socially isolated because of their busy schedule and recurrent feelings of estrangement from non-medical professionals. They become lonely when they lose their intimate partner due to disease or because of their career choice.
They become lonely when they alone must negotiate the terms between patients and the healthcare system, often denying patients their wishes. Lastly, they become lonely when they are left without faith and without any medical solutions to patients’ and families’ suffering and pain.
We know of a young physician in Israel who feels her clinical practice distances her from the people she loves. We know of a Hong Kong-based clinician in his early 70s who has exhibited extreme social isolation and withdrawal after being infected with Covid-19 himself.