By Del Quentin Wilber, Los Angeles Times, May 6, 2020
Nurse Camille Davis has watched more than 30 patients die from coronavirus infection, and has sobbed while holding her phone close to them so loved ones could say their goodbyes. Her long drives home are filled with worry about transmitting the disease to her 8-year-old son.
“I had a colleague who wanted to quit, it was too much for her, and I told her, ‘We can’t quit. We have to keep working until we get sick,’” said Davis, a nurse at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. “That is how we are getting through this. But I wonder what we will be left to deal with when it’s all over. I’m worried I will develop PTSD.”
Hospital administrators say Davis’ experiences are hardly unique, and that is why they expect to confront a surge of mental health disorders affecting physicians and nurses who have battled COVID-19. As many as 20% to 25% of healthcare workers in hard-hit areas, experts say, are likely to develop disorders such as anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress — a rate similar to what is reported in soldiers returning from combat.
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