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Standards of care in the field of anaesthesiology and intensive care say that the procedures are performed by a team consisting of an anesthesiology nurse and an anaesthesiologist. Meanwhile, scheduled operations are often canceled due to severe staff shortages. Gazeta Wyborcza recently informed that the voivodeship In Lubuskie Voivodeship, the situation is so bad that the doctors count only on the help of the Minister of Health. While Zielona Góra lacks anesthesiologists, qualified nurses may not be available in other regions of Poland.
- When it comes to the number of anesthesiologists in hospital wards, the situation is better in cities that are university centers
- If women have to stay at home with young children, anesthesia nurses may not be available, doctors predict
- The organization of childcare for employees may be a rescue for hospitals
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Shortages of anesthesiologists. Residents are patching up staffing gaps
The University Hospital in Zielona Góra is canceling urgent operations for cancer patients, as the available anesthesiologists have been transferred to intensive care units dedicated to COVID-19 patients.
– Speaking of the number of deaths from COVID-19, we should also include cancer patients who did not receive help on time. Postponing an operation can mean a sentence in many cases. It is a deferred death, which we will not find later in the statistics about the scale of the pandemic – said prof. Dawid Murawa, oncologist surgeon, head of the clinic at the University Hospital in Zielona Góra.
The president of this hospital, Marek Działoszyński, claims that there are no anesthesiologists on the medical market in Lubuskie anymore. He also looked for them in Poznań, but to no avail.
The situation is slightly better than in Zielona Góra in the cities that are the seats of medical universities. Hospitals there have found a way to patch staffing gaps.
– In Łódź itself, we do not have a clear shortage of anaesthesiologists, it is an academic city, so the situation is saved by doctors residing in clinical hospitals – says Dr. Paweł Czekalski, president of the District Medical Council in Łódź. – As a medical self-government, we do not have clear signals regarding staff shortages. The situation is definitely worse in poviat hospitals with no resident support. There may be a shortage of not only anaesthesiologists, but also anaesthesiology nurses.
What to do to keep the anesthesia nurses at work?
The team – an anaesthesiologist and anesthesiologist – is inseparable. The current regulations require it to be a double. There are no exceptions to this, and it is similar in Europe. You can’t anesthetize a patient on your own, and if someone tries to do that, it puts them at risk, say the doctors. Sometimes these things happen in private practices, but in public health it is unthinkable.
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– The nurse must have an anaesthesiology specialization, because another one will not be able to cope with it – says Dr. Andrzej Jacyna, head of the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Therapy of the Western Hospital in Grodzisk Mazowiecki. – It is mainly about the ability to use complex equipment in an operating theater or in intensive care.
In the Western Hospital, the shortage of personnel may concern precisely qualified anesthesia nurses.
— As of today, there are no problems with anaesthesiologists, but I think that from Monday there will be problems in the profession of an anesthesiology nurse – adds Dr. Jacyna – because some of the ladies have children in the XNUMXrd grade and younger, so due to the new covid restrictions, they will be absent because of their care.
The hospital could be saved by organizing help for mothers in the form of day care centers. Such a solution has been considered before, and it is successfully used, for example, in Great Britain in relation to indispensable employees, i.e. people employed in health care and uniformed services – guards, police.
– Parents are offered this version of help – says Dr. Jacyna. – Their children can go to school where there is a separate area for them. This is some form of saving health workers in such a difficult period.
– In the hospital in Grodzisk Mazowiecki, we have a separate covid ward, and our patients are visited by us – says Dr. Jacyna. – At this stage, it is possible to find a doctor who can go there and, for example, change the settings of the ventilator in a patient who is ventilated. We are also planning to hospitalize severe cases in a separate part of our intensive care unit. This may become necessary as the pandemic accelerates.
See also:
- See also: How to create a safe “social bubble” for pandemic times
- Breakthrough information on convalescents. Seniors at a disadvantage
- What to do when you notice the first symptoms of coronavirus? [WE EXPLAIN]
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