An official hands out hand sanitizers to people waiting in line at a makeshift clinic in Incheon, west of Seoul, on June 3, 2020. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — With the COVID-19 pandemic nearing its second anniversary, concerns about burnout among medical staff are rising.
Yun Ye-seul (alias), a nurse working at a public health clinic in Seoul, is in charge of primary checks on patients and managing home treatment.
She hasn’t been able to afford a single day of rest since the ‘With Corona’ policy was introduced on Nov. 1, which led to a spike in the number of coronavirus patients.
“It takes a lot of effort to carry out epidemiological investigations while managing symptomatic and asymptomatic patients simultaneously,” Yun said.
Nurses are working longer hours as employees are being relocated to new COVID-19 quarantine departments, with new and inexperienced nurses coming in as replacements.
Kim Hye-in (alias), a nurse working at a general hospital in Seoul with two years of experience, said that it takes “a lot of time to train and deploy newly recruited nurses.”
“It may seem okay for each department to have one or two fewer workers, but it significantly the burden on other employees while depriving them of time off,” Kim said.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
