A Letter of Support For You and Thoughts About COVID-19

Co-published March 13th onGeriPal andPallimedDear Hospice and Palliative Care community,We are sad we cannot be together this year at the Annual Assembly and deeply concerned about the growing risk of the novel coronavirus. We want to send you a bit of encouragement, and some thoughts on how we can take care of ourselves, our teams, and our community in the setting of this new pandemic.We have always “punched above our weight” as a field, and the secret to that has been hard work, community, and being smart.We don ’t have to tell you to work hard. You and your teams know how to do this.1) Start social distancing from others (except patients) now, wherever you are in the country. While we realizethis is a stronger recommendation than currently being asked for by many public health entities, we are doing so in the interest of health care workers and patients--COVID-19 is spreading rapidly, sometimes with minor or no symptoms, with serious impact to healthcare systems worldwide. The exponential growth in cases in China, Italy, and South Korea has overwhelmed the healthcare systems, and has affected our patient population most seriously - the chronically ill and older adults.--We need to be ready and able to respond when the time comes. We will be exposed to the COVID –19 virus, and we cannot afford to lose our hospice and palliative care clinicians to isolation restrictions or illness, especially given the workforce shortages many of us face already.--Stay away from publ...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - Category: Palliative Care Tags: covid emergency preparedness pandemic rosielle sinclair smith tatum Widera yang Source Type: blogs