Help Fight Covid Exhaustion by Building a Support Group Culture: Three Strategies to Help People Cope with Covid Fatigue

These two cartoon images together create a pretty good metaphor for the impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic on our nation, and in particular on the frontline heroes in healthcare. The first image reflects the “We got this” attitude that was prevalent during the first wave last spring.

The second is more reflective of what’s happening now as we face the third wave. Our frontline heroes are becoming exhausted and a “We can’t keep doing this” level of anxiety has replaced the “We got this” confidence of ten months ago.

A recent article in The Atlantic put it this way: “The third [covid19] surge is breaking health-care workers.” Several days ago an AP News article quoted Alison Johnson, director of critical care at Johnson City Medical Center in Tennessee: “We are depressed, disheartened, and tired to the bone.”

In an article about the nationwide shortage of critical care staff, today’s edition of The New York Times quoted Dr. Matthew Trump, an intensivist at UnityPoint Health in Iowa: “People here are exhausted and burned out from the past few months. I’m really concerned.”

In his book Courage Goes to Work Bill Treasurer writes: “People won’t start being courageous just because you tell them to. You’ve got to create an environment that encourages them.”

Here are three things that you as a leader can do to create that sort of environment:

Mask up and show up

In his fantasy classic The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien had Gandalf the wizard “show up where he was most needed and least expected.” That’s a pretty good formula for leading through a time of crisis.

It’s not enough to say the words “we’re all in this together.” You need to demonstrate your commitment to those words by showing up where you are most needed and least expected: night shift in the ICU, Saturday evening in the Emergency Department, over the noon hour in food service. Jodi Simmons is Chief Nursing Officer at Hillcrest Medical Center in Tulsa. During the pandemic, her senior leadership team has been visiting every unit on every shift, seven days a week. She calls this “senior leader rounding on steroids.”

Don’t overlook your management team

We’ve added several covid19-specific questions to our VCI-17 Culture Assessment Survey and in recent months have seen increasing levels of exhaustion and anxiety being reported. Of particular concern is the fact that in our recent surveys, managers are twice as likely to report being overwhelmed as frontline staff.

Think about ways that you can help members of your management team refill their own pitchers. One idea would be a book club Zoom huddle. Pick a relevant book and send a copy as a gift to each manager to read prior to the huddle. Given the challenges of today’s VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world, consider a book about leadership lessons from Shackleton’s Antarctic exploration, one of the greatest survival stories ever. Shackleton’s Way and Leading at the Edge are available at Amazon and other booksellers.

Advocate for your people out in the community

In his book Building A Vibrant Community Quint Studer wrote: “Healthcare systems should go beyond their role of providing direct patient care and invest in keeping their community healthy and vibrant.” Sometimes this means going to your community with a tough love message.

One of the biggest frustrations for many caregivers is spending a 12+ hour shift in full protective gear caring for acutely ill covid19 patients and then going to the grocery store and seeing people refusing to wear masks. You might not be able to convince anti-maskers to care enough for themselves and their families to wear a mask, but you can show your caregivers that you care enough for them to try. Sharing this video from Every Mask Up, a partnership of America’s largest health systems, would be a great start.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTkuNXJnrLw

Everyday Courage for Extraordinary Times

One more thing: Join the growing roster of organizations whose leaders are sharing Everyday Courage for Extraordinary Times with their people. One participant told me that this was like "a support group in a box." Learn more at our website:

Everyday Courage for

Extraordinary Times