{"id":47263,"date":"2020-04-22T19:03:54","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T18:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=47263"},"modified":"2020-04-29T16:12:30","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T15:12:30","slug":"utpal-sandesara-we-need-protect-most-vulnerable-healthcare-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2020\/04\/22\/utpal-sandesara-we-need-protect-most-vulnerable-healthcare-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Utpal Sandesara: We need to protect the most vulnerable healthcare workers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"standfirst\">Many healthcare workers will have health conditions or personal circumstances that make them more vulnerable to covid-19. The private dilemmas they face should be openly discussed, argues Utpal Sandesara<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-47266\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/04\/Utpal_sandesara.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"173\" height=\"168\" \/>The US\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/090600c299a8cf07f5b44d92534856bc\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">woeful pandemic preparation<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> has forced healthcare workers involved in the care of patients with covid-19 to brave <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/03\/19\/health\/coronavirus-masks-shortage.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">unsafe conditions<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. But the prevailing public narrative\u2014one of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/policy-and-politics\/2020\/3\/27\/21194402\/coronavirus-masks-n95-respirators-personal-protective-equipment-ppe\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> subjecting everyone to unnecessary risk\u2014tells only half the story.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The other half concerns the uneven distribution of risk within workplaces. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">My recent conversations with fellow healthcare workers<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> have repeatedly raised a seemingly private dilemma. The dilemma revolves around a question many hesitate to even ask: do our obligations to patients and colleagues change when insufficient protection intersects with personal vulnerability?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A recent <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2020\/03\/25\/protect-older-and-vulnerable-health-care-workers-from-covid-19\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">op-ed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> made the case for shielding healthcare providers who are older or chronically ill from covid-19. My recent conversations convince me that we must consider a broader range of conditions<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2014<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">many invisible<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2014<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">that put people at particularly high risk. We must consider them not just for doctors and nurses, but for all <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kff.org\/other\/state-indicator\/total-health-care-employment\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">17 million US healthcare workers<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Let me share a few examples.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of my colleagues is an emergency medicine intern with a newborn daughter. Upcoming weeks hold ICU, emergency department, and general medicine rotations for her, and she\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/health\/2020\/03\/26\/coronavirus-doctors-fear-families-safety-kaiser-health-news\/5085475002\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">terrified of giving her baby<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> covid-19 because of insufficient masks at work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I hear the angst in her voice as she asks, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWhat the heck do I do?\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Should she stay with her family, potentially exposing them? Should she move out, leaving her partner to shoulder parenting duties alone while working full time? Or should she request family leave?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just mentioning the last option causes her to wince. She tells me it wouldn\u2019t be fair<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2014<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">to the patients she signed up to serve or to the coworkers who\u2019d pick up the slack.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Others face similar dilemmas. A resident I know in another hospital has compromised immunity. He tells me that he feels torn upon being asked to examine coughing outpatients without a mask because \u201cthey don\u2019t have fevers and we\u2019ve really got to conserve PPE.\u201d A nurse I know dreads going to work because of fears about how covid-19 might hurt her pregnant body or her unborn child.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It\u2019s not just doctors and nurses, though. What about those cleaning hospital rooms suspected of coronavirus contamination? They often lack the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marketwatch.com\/story\/on-the-frontlines-fighting-covid-19-for-1730-an-hour-2020-03-30\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">privilege or publicity<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> afforded medical providers, but we shouldn\u2019t forget their contribution or the risks they face. One of my colleagues doing this vital work has bad diabetes and well controlled lupus, and she\u2019d certainly benefit from switching assignments with lower risk coworkers. But instead, she keeps quiet and carries on; she tells me that her family needs to eat, a consideration that\u2019s foremost for many people during a crisis that\u2019s hitting <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/03\/27\/business\/economy\/coronavirus-inequality.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">working class<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2020\/04\/coronavirus-exposing-our-racial-divides\/609526\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">ethnic minority<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> families hardest.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vulnerable healthcare workers face impossible choices. They fear for themselves and their loved ones. But they also feel tremendous guilt. Consistent with a medical ethos that emphasizes <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2020\/4\/2\/21204402\/coronavirus-covid-19-doctors-nurses-health-care-workers\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">selflessness above all<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> they agonize over commitments to patients and colleagues. In many cases, they find themselves trapped by tight finances and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2020\/04\/06\/texas-medical-workers-left-out-coronavirus-paid-sick-leave-protections\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">leave policies<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that specifically exclude them. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We need to openly discuss this moral tug of war and confront the dilemmas our fellow workers are suffering in private.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I feel fortunate. My residency program has encouraged those with compromised immunity, pregnancy, or other extenuating circumstances to discuss reassignment. It has arranged temporary housing for those wishing to protect family members, as Governor Gavin Newsom is now <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/states\/california\/story\/2020\/04\/09\/california-finds-140-000-subsidized-hotel-rooms-for-health-care-workers-1274516\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">doing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for Californian healthcare workers who are being exposed to the virus.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Unfortunately, many workplaces have not even acknowledged that compromised safety puts some healthcare workers at higher risk than others. In places like New York, where a massive surge has already hit, it may be too late. But the rest of us must discuss reassignment, rehousing, and other protective measures immediately, or else risk missing our chance entirely.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some vulnerabilities won\u2019t lend themselves to criteria as straightforward as an age cutoff. Local context will matter. Individual circumstances will matter. Good decision making will involve acknowledging ethical ambiguity and engaging in ongoing dialogue. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Such dialogue shouldn\u2019t remain entirely private. Allocating risk among healthcare workers and prioritizing protection for the most vulnerable are topics that deserve open deliberation and communication.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rank and file workers must speak up, too. We must let both employers and coworkers know that we stand in solidarity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Finally, the imperative to protect the most vulnerable is ultimately part of the imperative to protect us all. Unsafe working conditions and lack of PPE differentially endanger vulnerable workers and families, but they affect everyone. Shielding the most vulnerable should be one part of a larger strategy for robust, universal safety protocols for all healthcare workers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Utpal Sandesara<\/strong> is an anthropologist and resident physician in internal medicine at UCLA. Certain identifying details in this article have been modified to protect privacy.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>Competing interests: <\/b>I have read and understood BMJ policy on declaration of interests and declare the following interests: None.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many healthcare workers will have health conditions or personal circumstances that make them more vulnerable to covid-19. The private dilemmas they face should be openly discussed, argues Utpal Sandesara [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2020\/04\/22\/utpal-sandesara-we-need-protect-most-vulnerable-healthcare-workers\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1357,18907],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-health-care","category-wellbeing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Utpal Sandesara: We need to protect the most vulnerable healthcare workers - The BMJ<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2020\/04\/22\/utpal-sandesara-we-need-protect-most-vulnerable-healthcare-workers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Utpal Sandesara: We need to protect the most vulnerable healthcare workers - The BMJ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many healthcare workers will have health conditions or personal circumstances that make them more vulnerable to covid-19. 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