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TODAY IS NATIONAL Workplace Wellbeing Day. All of our workplaces have changed, but none so much as the hospital and healthcare setting. It is a good day to shine a light on the conditions we are asking them to work in. We are so grateful, we call them heroes, they are saving the day.
This pandemic came upon us like a tidal wave. Healthcare workers sprung into action, many returning from overseas or retirement to join the frontline. There was a feeling of bravado, stepping up to the plate and following their vocation.
In reality, is that novelty factor is likely to last? Those of us who are at home stuck behind our computer screens are itching to get out, to return to our workplaces and social lives. With a flicker of freedom in our sights, we might just forget about the heroes who are still and will still be, fighting the good fight. Without their hard work and dedication, we would not win our freedom.
But do we truly understand what we are asking them to do? We at the Wellness Crew have launched Wellness for Heroes – a volunteer initiative to highlight the sacrifices that frontline workers are making and to offer a helping hand.
Stress risks for healthcare workers
When the first battle against Covid-19 is won, the war will not be over. Over the next few months and years, healthcare workers will still be working long shifts, under very stressful conditions.
The hero badge is not going to protect them from burnout, anxiety, stress, illness due to suppressed immunity and depression due to isolation from friends and family. There will be lasting effects and we cannot even begin to count the casualties from this yet.
Burnout is not a medical term or an official diagnosis but it can manifest in many ways. Our bodies are designed to cope with a normal level of stress. In fact, without stress stimuli, we may never get off our backsides and do anything productive.
Adrenalin and cortisol are our stress hormones and along with a complex interplay with other chemical messengers, they issue our ‘get up and at ‘em’ orders on a daily basis.
However, when we are constantly firing these signals, there may be an additive effect. Without a calming period, firing stress hormones builds and builds until you might find yourself flying off the handle at any small stressor.
This might be considered the phase before burnout, where you are hypersensitive, anxious, have difficulty relaxing and getting to sleep – a common complaint from healthcare workers. Ultimately, the body cannot sustain this kind of action and this may result in exhaustion, chronic fatigue, apathy and depression – burnout.
Fatigue can be coupled with many different manifestations, a digestive system unwilling to cooperate, headaches and joint pains, and a weakened immune system. It can take a long time to recover from true burnout, there is no overnight fix.
PPE shortages are a barrier to wellness
Reports from the frontline speak of long working hours with limited breaks and very little rest. Given the early shortages of PPE, healthcare workers know they need to make whatever equipment they are given last. This means aside from a scheduled lunch break, there is no way to even take a drink of water. Dehydration is just one of the physical stressors in this workplace.
When this is coupled with a high intake of caffeine, it compounds dehydration further as caffeinated drinks are diuretic, meaning they make us lose more water. Caffeine is also a stimulant, beneficial when it’s needed, but can add to the stimulatory effect of stress hormones.
There is also no way to take in additional fuel, ideally with a nutritious and sustaining snack. Good nutrition and regular intake of food is one antidote to reduce the effects of stress and balance cortisol levels, the stress hormone. Working away for long periods between meals is the antithesis of this and yet in this very stressful environment, regular eating is not feasible.
Demanding work environments need greater support
In our daily work, we provide wellness supports to those who work in all extremely stressful work environments. That includes workers who screen online content. This is another exceptionally difficult job which is essential to keeping everyone in society safe, while the long-term risks to mental health from such exposures are huge.
We have asked our healthcare heroes to work in a high-risk environment and under great stress. They are working with a real threat of serious infection and of transmitting this coronavirus to a loved one.
Often they are isolated from their families, at a time when many of us are frustrated at being holed up with ours. Some are in households where both parents are on the front line. Juggling childcare must be almost impossible along with risking the health of others who may be helping out. There is a constant worry of how to manage if one parent gets sick.
Staff shortages add to stress
It can also be difficult to avail of wellness supports when your working hours are already so long. Staff shortages and illness may be compounding the issue here for healthcare workers. When you already work in one of the most stressful environments in the country, the burden is greater when half your army is down.
I would be surprised if healthcare workers are finding the time right now to support their wellness by eating well, exercising regularly and engaging in mental health supports. Even people who have all the time in the world are barely managing that.
Wellness supports
The HSE offers an array of mental health supports and the announcement of a further €1.1 million in funding is very welcome. It is essential to provide the right supports at the right time. An interesting study has been launched by a collaboration between University of Limerick and University of Gloucestershire. This survey aims to assess the mental health of those working in frontline jobs (both healthcare and others) and to identify what kinds of supports these workers are availing of. More information can be found here at @CV19Heroes.
As a small token of our appreciation, we have volunteered our skills by providing daily online wellness content via Wellness for Heroes. We hope this will help in some small part. We hope that frontline workers may be able to access this when and where suits, perhaps on a commute home, perhaps in some precious minutes before bed.
Videos are about 10 minutes long and designed to be easily accessible to all. There is no sign up required and no commitment, we are not soliciting donations. It is just a helping hand from us to the frontline.
Ciara Wright PhD DipNT, Senior Nutritional Therapist and Director of Glenville Nutrition and Wellness Director with The Wellness Crew: www.glenvillenutrition.ie www.thewellnesscrew.ie
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How is a swimming pool a tourist attraction ? It’s surely locals of west Dublin going for a swim
The NAC isn’t just a swimming pool. It has a small water park with a few slides, lazy river, wave pool and others I’m probably forgetting.
I take your point Chris but I’m going to go ahead and agree with Tony on this one. I’m not sure this should ever class as a tourist attraction.
I wouldn’t classify it as a tourist attraction, either, to be honest. I just had to clarify that it is not just a swimming pool.
Going by that criteria why isn’t Croke Park up there. With all the matches and concerts every year attendances are in the millions.
Few countries in the world can compare for natural beauty, and for all our faults there is a decency and goodness in Irish people that can be rare to find elsewhere. Sure we are not loved throughout the world as we would like to believe, but that is our own fault because the way a minority behave abroad. We have a wonderful culture that many of us have forgotten, great music, creativity and a brand that most countries would love. And to those who have left, hopefully some day we can welcome them all back some day to a better country, to a better home with some hope for the future. We live in ana amazing country, lets enjoy it!
Many thumbs up!
I was lucky enough as a child to have a father who loved to drive. He took us all over the country. I am grateful to this day for him showing me so much of this country when I was younger.
Stop posting your link in every thread, please
The old romantic view – but we’re deluding ourselves. Our culture is as good as most, no more. And having been forced by the Christian Brothers, and the system to learn Irish (a dead language, virtually) and play Gaelic games – I have preferred and chosen other places to reside.
Just one example, the UK. Steeped in history and where O’Casey, Joyce and Wilde chose to live and work from an early age. The arts there are legendary, as is its education and sport. We tend to live in the past.
Gaelic games, for instance, are still followed avidly here – but nowhere else. Whilst soccer is played in every country on earth (c220) – with over 3.3b currently watching the World Cup. A game invented by the English.
Yes Will – I am one of ‘those who have left’ also. And have no wish to return; I, too, was forced to learn Gaelic (which I never used), attend mass (which I no longer do) and to play Gaelic games (which I stopped, ASAP.
Ireland may be a fine country – but I often wonder why so many had to be pressurised into becoming a stereotype. A fews days in Rome NYC or Venice – would be much more attractive than Dublin or Taytoland……….
There is a difference between living in the past and actually remembering or respecting it. British people tend to have complete amnesia about their history when it comes to imperialism and the slave trade. Most countries are very selective about their history, Ireland and the UK are no different.
Different countries have contibuted differently but equally to the world whether its Karaoke, Halloween, soccer or pasta. I don’t get eith these comparisons which are often inadvertedly used to fuel nationslism. No country is better or worse.
Always surprised that the Guinness storehouse comes top. It’s really not a great experience
I’m a home brewer and while Guinness is the only commercial beer I’d happily drink (Murphy’s great too but don’t live near a Murphy tap), the experience is extremely good imo.
It explains the brewing process very well and in a very accessible manner. I’ve been to the Heineken and Kronenbourg’s respective equivalents and it is very good.
Most places are more like vineyard experiences and I include Jameson in that.
I do not think it is value for money however. It is very expensive but as an attraction I think it’s well done.
It’s a money msling racket!
There’s a list to keep your kids off iPads , phones , computer games for a few weekends . Get out and enjoy what’s on offer .
*Sent from your iphone :p
So Dublin then !!!! I know thousands of other places NOT in Dublin that should replace most of what’s on that list ! There is more to IRELAND than DUBLIN !!!!
It’s based on pure visitor numbers. Dublin is by far the most visited in terms of tourists so it naturally will dominate the list.
Yeah like Cork and Kildare and Meath…oops sorry they’re already on the list!
To
The butter museum in Cork city has yet again been mistakenly passed over!
As has indeed the English Market
I think footfall in the Market would be difficult to judge.I love the place and would recommend it to anyone but trying to figure out who is local and who is a tourist is not really possible.
The National Aquatic Centre?! Really?!
What about Muckross
Been to most of them. But for me Fota Wildlife Park (if that’s want you want to call it !) was a major disappointment.
You mean the overpriced glorified “exotic” farm where all the animals are depressed off their heads, couldn’t agree more!………. Ps if anyone from Fota happens to read this for gods sake clean the water down there it’s horribly murky and full of rubbish oh and give the animals some quality of life, that poor eagle in that tiny enclosure (small cage) looks like he needs a good feed of prozac not to mention all the other poor creatures depressed off their heads, for the money your charging it shouldn’t be a problem!!!
Number 5 looks like it could be a dole que
Be nice to see the Boyne Valley up there or any of our historical monuments further afield ie outside the major cities. The convenience of the Dublin and Cork attractions is plain to see but there is no denying the breadth and variety of our attractions. Also, wasn’t that impressed with Fota Wildlife Park recently, but then again, I am comparing it to Dublin Zoo, which I love.
I would have hoped the national leprachaun museum would make the list. My favourite Dublin attrsction by far,
Too small!!! Too small!!!!
A jail – are you joking me?
No wonder Tourism Ireland has been pestering the government – for years – to invest in some new activity-based attractions.
Such as they have in most other countries in Europe – including those equivalent to the size of Ireland.
Build it, and they will come.
Im very pleased that the jail made the list. Its the one thing I always tell visitors to do when they come here.
Its well run and the tour guides are very knowledable, Im sure that alcatraz would be on the list in california.
AFAIK Tayto park got, or are in the process of planning permission for a few roller coasters.
Don’t put down Tayto… You might have a chip on your shoulder. Sic!
The cliffs of mohar are not as spectacular as I expected .. giants causeway is much more cooler
Stick on Dublin Liffey Board. All kinds of wild life there
Been too all
The “Barack Obama ” plaza will be number one next year..can’t wait
6 out of the 10 are in Dublin i don’t think so….
have your say