How Is COVID-19 Changing Healthcare: From Frontline Workers to Clinical Trials
It’s been more than a year of battling the COVID-19 virus and the world will never be the way that it was before the pandemic happened. More than anything, COVID-19 has struck its hammer on the healthcare industry the most, changing the landscape for frontline workers and clinical trials.
Frontline workers are the world’s unsung heroes
Frontline workers have never been under more stress, exhaustion, and pressure than during this pandemic. Aside from the risk of contracting COVID-19, they now deal with more patients than they’re used to. Many hospitals across the world have hit max capacity during the course of the pandemic, causing high-stress environments.
Working at this time means taking extreme sanitary precautions so they don’t put their families at risk for infection. It also means isolating themselves in case they test positive for the virus.
The exhaustion and stress of the work alone also puts their mental, emotional and social well-being at risk. It affects different aspects of their life.
Yet these healthcare workers still choose to go to work every day because they understand the need for their expertise and services at this very trying time.
So, they definitely deserve more honor and respect right now. They work twice as hard, battle an unseen adversary and still manage to keep themselves together knowing that more people are relying on their expertise.
Working longer hours causes physical exhaustion and burning out. It can also trigger anxiety, depression and even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that could have a lot of long-term effects.
Frontline workers are definitely unsung heroes who deserve to be honored and respected for their sacrifice in battling this pandemic. Even after we beat COVID-19, many of these frontline workers will have prolonged recovery time from the conditions of this pandemic.
Clinical trials are now geared towards beating COVID-19
From the start of the pandemic the world’s healthcare systems have shifted gears in clinical trials. It’s been a race for many towards conducting trials aiming to understand, treat and prevent the COVID-19 virus.
For months, scientists, researchers and medical experts have been studying the virus that has already killed millions of people in the effort to find a cure and develop a working vaccine.
Although several pharmaceutical companies have already released their own vaccines, the healthcare system is still working on conducting more clinical trials that will allow them to prevent a similar or more deadly pandemic from happening in the future.
A hope for a better future
We now understand the virus better and have protocols in place to keep it from spreading further. Promising signs of accessible vaccines are now in our near future, shinning light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, while death rates are dropping, it is still claiming the lives of thousands per day, and precautions are necessary.
As for the healthcare industry, this pandemic will surely claim its place in history. It is important that the frontline heroes fighting it receive the honor they deserve. We owe it all to those who have been working the frontlines and conducting the research in clinical trials.
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The National Institute of Clinical Research is an SMO/CRO with offices and labs in the following cities and states: New Jersey, North Carolina, Austin, San Diego, San Francisco, Bakersfield 93309, Fountain Valley 92708, Garden Grove 92840, Hacienda Heights 91745, Huntington Beach 92648, Las Vegas 89106, Long Beach 90806, Los Angeles 90048, Ontario 91762, Rosemead 91770, San Antonio 78207, Santa Ana 92704, Upland 91786, and Westminster 92683.
