Why COVID is so emotional for physicians

<p>"These encounters made my evening shift much more emotional than usual. I am still not sure what it was exactly that evoked such strong feelings of sadness. Was it having a patient who was a health care worker? Was it the rapidity in which all three patients’ conditions deteriorated? Was it realizing that without timely, expert care, all three would die very quickly?</p> <p>Or, was it hearing people wanting to relax the measures and not wear masks, without insight into how quickly things can go wrong and end up deadly?</p> <p>Or, was it the cost of empathy, and just feeling the pains of my patients way too deeply?</p> <p>Or, was it talking to the family members of patients and trying to answer their many questions: How will it be in the ICU? Will it be lonely? Can you please let us visit? Just one time? What can we expect? When will they recover?</p> <p>Or, was it my inability to answer some of these questions? My lack of a crystal ball? Or, was it being already emotionally exhausted from managing everyday challenges of keeping life as normal as possible, with remote learning, running a household, and helping elderly in-laws with lots of medical, emotional, and personal needs?"</p> <p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasminka-criley-md/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jasminka Vukanovic-Criley</a> is a hospitalist and can be reached on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/criley_md?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@criley_md</a>.</p> <p>She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "<a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/07/the-emotional-side-of-being-a-doctor-during-the-covid-19-pandemic.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The emotional side of being a doctor during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>." (<a href= "https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/07/the-emotional-side-of-being-a-doctor-during-the-covid-19-pandemic.html">https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/07/the-emotional-side-of-being-a-doctor-during-the-covid-19-pandemic.html</a>)</p>