The tragedies of caring

As our community embarks into a full year, and more, of COVID-19 — the infections, the loss, the isolation — it is important to stop and think about a group of people that have been trying to hold it together 24 hours a day, seven days a week since: the professional caregivers. You might think of them as the first responders, but these are the people that are your physicians, your emergency room staff, valet, the nurses, the aides, the security, the social workers, the professional counselors, imaging technicians, the pharmacy staff, the lab technicians, the COVID-19 tracers, the dietary specialists, the infection control specialists, the environmental specialists (that clean up after us), the front desk warriors and the volunteers that help the health care systems run.

Have you seen the meme with the yellow beagle sitting at a table in a restaurant? He’s holding a dazed glaze as the entire room is burning down around him. He says, “This is fine. Everything’s fine.” I can’t and won’t begin to speak for all the professional caregivers but perhaps there is no better meme to describe how this population has felt for the past year. Trying to keep people alive, safe, patient, while medical institutions scrambled to undertake massive interventions to people, set up vaccine fairs, and take care of too many sick people and not enough supplies or space. As the global pandemic has turned the world inside out, people have lost countless loved ones, and our communities have been asked and, in some cases, forced into social isolation that we’re not used to.

Consider social isolation and the implications professionals suffer in the workplace especially during this terrible time. Isolation for these professionals is being pulled from their teams and being asked to work alone for hours. It means not eating together, venting or debriefing, being terrified for their patients, hearing the agony of suffering or the bereavement of a loved one. It means being yelled at when someone doesn’t understand why they couldn’t visit a loved one or must wear a mask, or the logistics of figuring out how to do thousands upon thousands of COVID-19 test results with not enough supplies. Isolation is providing hundreds of hours to our community members who are homebound, haven’t seen their own families in months, and suffering the isolation at home too. It is in reconfiguring how to get medicine to people or holding phones up to sick people’s ears. It is sitting alone in your car thinking about the secondary trauma or firsthand trauma you experienced today.

Professional isolation is when the professionals have no one to relate to or talk to. It is the utter travesty of dedicating your life to helping others; giving a little piece of you every day until eventually you can be seen through. The COVID-19 pandemic has set fire to the professional isolation that your community caregivers go through. They want our world to resume to “normal” too. They want you safe, your loved ones healthy. They want to take good care of you, because they have all dedicated their lives out of empathy, ethics and compassion. Caring for you makes life worth it. But we cannot do that if you don’t do your part. You can help pull these caregivers out of isolation. You can put some pieces back into their passion and unconditional support. Mask up. Get vaccinated if you can. Be diligent in your personal space. Be patient, always choose to be kind and help others.

Becky Pletzer is a licensed clinical social worker who has practiced in the medical field for more than 15 years. She lives in Eagle River with her husband and two young sons.

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