Home Forums DNP Practice Issues The 4th Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic Check out this graphic to anticipate future effort Reply To: Check out this graphic to anticipate future effort

#41114
Ryan Lau
Participant

COVID-19 has changed the world tremendously throughout these last few years and it has shown in all aspects of the world. It has changed the way we do business, communicate and interact with others, obtain supplies and materials, and the way we interact with patients in a hospital setting. This graph perfectly represents what is currently happening in the world today as are possibly currently located somewhere in between the second and third wave. As technology improves and more people become vaccinated, there will be more immunity throughout the communities which will help prevent the spread of COVID-19. This will eventually shift over to the third wave which would impact those with chronic conditions. However, we have not discussed the 4th wave which is currently happening behind the scenes and occasionally displayed over the media. It has been shown that many hospitals and institutions are severely understaffed just with the way hospitals treat their nurses. Many have chosen retirement or simply left to a higher paying job in order to receive compensation for what they feel is worth it. Many nurses who stick around understaffed units and hospitals currently struggle with both a mental and physical battle where there is simply not enough manpower to help complete the tasks of taking care of multiple patients. The mental aspect has to do with burnout as they are constantly being requested to come in and work overtime as the unit is unable to hire anyone willing to work. The shut down of many outside services has also shown that not only medical workers are suffering but those who’s income rely on face to face interaction such as brick and mortar businesses and services that require you to go in person. There is definitely an economical issue going on right now as the government continues to hand out money to those who are unemployed which may also decrease the incentive of wanting to look for a job until that fund is empty. This graph shows the direction that we are headed to perfectly and predicts the next step in the current pandemic situation.