Healthcare workers are burnt out
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 8 December 2021
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What can be done to stem the tide of carers quitting the industry? Before the pandemic the healthcare sector struggled to recruit enough workers. Today they're leaving in droves. Citing physical and mental exhaustion, poor working conditions, a lack of appreciation and miserly pay, carers are leaving their jobs - a trend with all the makings of a future skills crisis. The BBC's Rebecca Kesby speaks to Ged Swinton, a member of the Royal College of Nursing who had to leave his job as a frontline nurse after losing patience with an unappreciative government - and abuse from the public. Will Hunter recently returned to his job as an accident and emergency junior doctor, but could only handle part time work after an intense year of pandemic conditions. In the USA we hear from Vicki Good, former president of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, who tells us people are leaving the care sector almost as soon as they join, despite spending years in training beforehand. We speak to Lori Peters of the National Association of Health Care Assistants, who says that without decent pay and conditions, the sector won't attract enough workers to fill a skills gap that will only get bigger.
This episode is produced by Russell Newlove, Sarah Hawkins and Elizabeth Hotson.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service with me Rebecca Kesby. |
| 0:06.9 | Today, why the world is facing an exodus of healthcare workers. |
| 0:11.2 | I've personally seen nurses that are brand new graduates coming into the profession and leaving within three and six months. |
| 0:19.9 | Hundreds of thousands have already quit. |
| 0:22.4 | According to some reports, up to half a thinking of quitting soon. |
| 0:26.6 | It's a crisis, which may cause even more problems down the line. |
| 0:30.2 | It takes a long time to grow a nurse, |
| 0:33.7 | and it's vital that you have experienced people around you, |
| 0:37.1 | people who can guide you, support you in difficult situations. |
| 0:41.3 | Burnout in their health sector and why we all may suffer the consequences. |
| 0:46.1 | That's here on Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:53.9 | During the first wave of the pandemic, every Thursday night here in the UK, |
| 0:58.8 | people would stand outside their front doors and clap their hands and cheer. |
| 1:03.2 | Bang pots and pans make a noise to say thank you to the frontline healthcare workers battling COVID-19. |
| 1:10.0 | It's a lot of mine. to the frontline healthcare workers battling COVID-19. |
| 1:18.7 | In Italy, people sang from their balconies in appreciation for nurses and doctors. |
| 1:21.0 | And street artists from Brazil to Australia |
| 1:24.5 | dedicated their work to courageous healthcare workers, |
| 1:28.2 | who they depicted as angels and superheroes. |
| 1:32.2 | But they are only human, just like the rest of us, and many have had enough. |
| 1:38.3 | For me, burnout was a mixture of that, that stress and fatigue, |
| 1:42.6 | and also just reaching a place where it felt like |
... |
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