Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Working Conditions Have Improved, But Health Workers Struggle With Psychological Toll
The Associated Press: 'Still Scared': Health Workers Feel The Toll Of Virus Fight
Outside a back door to a hospital where the coronavirus hit like a hurricane, a half-dozen staffers gathered recently to look back, and look inward. “I am still scared,” Dr. Gwen Hooley told her colleagues at Elmhurst Hospital, which was swamped with patients in late March as the virus rampaged through New York. Physician’s assistant Diane Akhbari recalled her husband leaving food on the cellar stairs while she isolated herself for months for fear of infecting her family: “I felt like an animal,” she said, her voice cracking. (Peltz, 6/16)
NPR: Medical Schools Taken To Task Over Racism, Hazing And Other Abuse
As doctors and nurses across the United States continue to gather outside hospitals and clinics to protest police brutality and racism as part of the White Coats for Black Lives movement, LaShyra Nolen, a first-year student at Harvard Medical School, says it's time to take medical schools to task over racism, too. The fight for equality in medical education isn't new, says Nolen, the first black woman to serve as Harvard Medical School's student council president. But she's hopeful that the national conversation around racism in society will force hospitals and medical schools to address racism within their own institutions. (Gordon, 6/16)
Modern Healthcare: Why The Pandemic Has Energized Hospital Unions
COVID-19 is strengthening the hand of unions looking to organize more healthcare workers. During the pandemic, unions representing nurses and other front-line medical staffers have stepped forward to advocate aggressively on behalf of their members. They've called attention to shortages of personal protective equipment and staffing ratios that they say endanger both workers and patients. In some cases, they've won paid sick leave and hazard pay—and nonunion workers are watching. (Goldberg, 6/15)
Kaiser Health News: Wealthy Hospital Taps Small Craft Breweries For Financial Aid To Buy Masks, Gloves
As Inova Health System sought donations in March to buy personal protective equipment for its staff to treat COVID-19, Zach Mote, a police officer turned brewer, came to their aid. Even though his Water’s End Brewery taproom in this Washington, D.C., suburb had been forced to close, he enlisted the help of nearby Beltway Brewing to make a new ale, PPE beer. They’ve donated the more than $18,000 from its sales to the hospital system to help buy masks, gloves and other personal protective equipment. (Galewitz, 6/16)
The New York Times: When Nowhere Feels Safe, Finding Sanctuary On The Drive Home
Healthcare workers have few spaces of sanctuary, between risk at work and anxiety at home that our loved ones could catch the disease from us. (Potter, 6/10)
WBUR: A Hospice Nurse Answers The Call To Care For Terminally Ill Coronavirus Patients
The job of a hospice nurse is to care for the comfort of people who are dying. That job didn’t change in the pandemic — it just got riskier. Some hospices turned away COVID-positive patients, deeming the risk to its staff too great. Others stepped up. (Mason, 6/16)
GMA: American Girl Honors Health Care Workers With New Scrubs Doll Outfit
Now you can dress up your American Girl doll to look like the real-life health care superheroes on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. American Girl is honoring health care workers with a new, special edition #ThankYouHeroes scrubs outfit. (Hauler and Moore, 6/15)
