"About one in five healthcare workers has left their job since the pandemic started." (Yong 2021). When Slim and I saw this, we knew that we HAD to talk about it because we both are in the helping profession. Our helpers are NOT FINE and we really need to stop long enough to talk about it. Nurses, Social Workers, Doctors, Therapists, and the like are all burning out faster than can be replaced. Especially those just entering the field deciding to leave altogether after only a few months. Our healthcare system has always been in a precarious position, but just like how PPE was a finite resource so is the available amount of professionals that we have to do the life-saving work that goes down everyday in communities all across the United States. From physical illness to mental illness, we are battling pandemics on multiple fronts not to mention social issues that advocates work on diligently everyday. All these jobs are mentally, emotionally, and physically taxing which isn't surprising to us that so many professionals involved in these fields from the very top down to the grassroots are burning out. But what is alarming is that it's happening rapidly and to young, brand new professionals who drop out of the helping field all together.

Our healthcare system was not designed to operate at this capacity and as we head into another year of a pandemic with a rise in mental health issues as well as the social issues like housing getting harder to be addressed, we will need MORE professionals not less. So this time the helpers need help and we need to stop long enough come together as a community so we can have this discussion. Pull up a seat and lets start a discussion...

Reference

Yong, E. (2021, November 18). Why Health-Care Workers Are Quitting in Droves. The Atlantic. Retrieved December 17, 2021, from https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/11/the-mass-exodus-of-americas-health-care-workers/620713/