I was watching some news stories this week featuring hospital leaders and healthcare workers talking about how things are in surge states. Reporter always asked if they were 'overwhelmed' and did 'they have beds/staff?"

Sadly, you won't get the real answer this way.

THREAD

The thing is that hospital leaders can't go on TV and scare people with how bad things are because of the real concern that patients who are indeed sick won't come in leading to more deaths. They also are managing concerns of risk management and reputation/financial damage too.

So they may say something like "our staff are doing our best" or I am "so proud of our teams" This is true! Everyone IS trying their best.
But please know that's not a business as usual signal.
"everyone is doing their best" is code for "yes s*(& hitting the fan but we trying"

So for all those who wants the real story they will try to get healthcare workers to speak out. That's also challenging since many can't for fear or not authorized to do so. Interestingly, those who do speak out may not be able to paint exactly how bad it is. Why you might ask?

Health professional training is steep in hierarchy and self-selects for those who don't complain of long work hours, system failures, and abuse. Not just doctors. Have you heard "nurses eat their young"

So when healthcare workers say they're "overwhelmed" or it's "really bad"..

Keep in mind healthcare workers (esp ICU!) are used to death, stress, high workload & long hours.

"Overwhelmed" is code for I'm drowning. "Really bad" is likely apocalyptic for a normal human. Trust us. We aren't complainers. Why would we start now?

Thank you for listening.

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