There is enough material and therefore less anxiety among care providers, but the psychological complaints are now at least as great as in April. This emerged on Monday from the fourth online survey by De ZorgSamen, an initiative of the umbrella organization Zorgnet-Icuro, among 1,280 employees of hospitals and residential care centers. 55 percent of them feel overtired, 42 percent experience a lack of sleep, and 35 percent indicate that they are unable to relax enough. Those figures are the same as in April.
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The results are alarming as the survey was conducted in early October, even before hospital admissions soared. “We expected to see a positive effect from the summer, but that is not the case at all,” says Professor Kris Vanhaecht, of the Leuven Institute for Healthcare (KU Leuven), who analyzed the results.
In April the scores for ‘being under pressure’ and ‘being constantly hyper-alert’ were even higher than at the beginning of October. At that time there was also more fear among the care staff. “It has been smoothed out because people know what is coming and because there is nowhere a shortage of protective equipment and there are plans and protocols everywhere,” says Vanhaecht.
But other symptoms were already as high in early October as in April. Fifty-five percent feel overtired, 42 percent experience a lack of sleep and 35 percent of the health care workers indicate that they are unable to relax enough.
More than during the first wave, health care providers believe they will seek support from a psychologist in the near future. In June, 40 percent thought they would certainly not need this, compared to 26 percent at the beginning of October.
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