Health care worker burnout skyrockets during the pandemic

Millions of health care workers across the country have been on the front lines fighting COVID-19 for over a year now.

"It has been a time of a lot of acute stress, a lot of unpredictability, unknowns and a lot of change," said Dr. Nadia Charguia, a psychiatrist with UNC Health.

Charguia helps health care workers navigate through the stress of the job. She said she’s lately been seeing more workers come in for help.

"We are seeing numbers just go off the chart. Our rate of increase has been over 400% when we compare those numbers pre-pandemic to where we are at right now," said Charguia.

According to a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll, about three in 10 health care workers have considered leaving their profession.

"I wouldn't say I've considered leaving my career, but certainly what adjustments need to be made," said Charguia.

In the poll, about six in 10 health care workers said stress from the pandemic has affected their mental health. Seven in 10 said the country has done a "poor" or "only fair" job of handling the pandemic.

Charguia said that, while positive coronavirus cases have improved across the state and country, the workload has not.

"The workload remains high, certainly, and there has been a shift [in] what is getting the attention in the workload," said Charguia. "There's more knowns about the virus, but with more knowns, there's more work to do with it."

She added that it's important to recognize when you’ve had enough and when it’s time to take a step back and reset.