Wednesday, Intermountain Healthcare hosted a Grand Rounds panel on medical education.
The panel centered around the mental health of frontline hospital workers.
On Tuesday, workers at The University of Utah and select Intermountain hospitals received their first doses of the two-part Pfizer vaccine. It’s a light at the end of the tunnel, but officials say some staff are struggling with mental health issues brought on by the pandemic.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospital workers have treated thousands of COVID-19 patients while dealing with over-crowded ICUs, long hours, fears of contracting the virus, and changing hospital policies.
Intermountain says it is commited to supporting frontline workers.
“To improve our communication, we created a daily huddle call to coordinate care across our entire system,” says Linda Venner M.D. at Intermountain. “As leaders, I think we have learned to be listeners. Sometimes, people voice concern about something that doesn’t seem to be that big of a deal or out of left field or they might be using it to express discomfort or fatigue around things that are a lot harder to name.”