The COVID-19 pandemic has become a serious challenge for millions of people worldwide, including the mental health and well-being impact on healthcare workers. The number of mental health outcomes like anxiety, stress, contagion fear, obligatory isolation, and post-traumatic stress disorder has significantly increased (Biber et al., 2022). Many healthcare organizations developed initiatives to support populations and ensure safety in almost every country. Professionals with a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degrees continue investigating the COVID-19 outcomes to choose the most relevant facts for their research. The pandemic mental health problems can be managed with appropriate initiatives, funding sources, and information exchange within new capstone projects.
Today, many national and international organizations promote safety and stabilize employee well-being that can be worsened due to COVID-19 restrictions. Such risks as poor workplace training, low organizational support, and inconsistent information affect healthcare providers and the quality of their work (Smallwood & Willis, 2021). Employees need to help patients, assess their health, choose appropriate caring techniques, and remind the importance of self-care and education. Such initiatives as positive and improving skills, meditation, healthy eating, and sleeping habits are promoted to create better workplaces (Bhattacharjee & Acharya, 2020). Communication between healthcare providers was improved through enhanced social media context and specific apps where true information was delivered. The more people know about the virus, the better they are prepared to predict mental health problems.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is one of the federal agencies responding to coronavirus. This organization has already published several guidelines for coping with the outcomes of the pandemic (Bhattacharjee & Acharya, 2020). Addressing its federal obligations and rights, the CDC issued a quarantine to predict the spread of the virus (Bhattacharjee & Acharya, 2020). Its Health Worker Mental Health Initiative addressed the burden, evidence, impact, and awareness worth (Cunningham et al., 2022). Together with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the CDC offered some part of its budget to local health departments as grants and agreements to increase funding sources. That financial help was spent on improving mental health education and developing new awareness campaigns within the healthcare sectors (Cunningham et al., 2022). As such, employers became aware of the COVID-19 pandemic peculiarities and could control their fears and uncertainties, decreasing mental health disorders and supporting patients.
Considering the already taken federal steps and the initiative to improve healthcare workers’ mental well-being, the DNP can utilize this information in a capstone project in several ways. First, these facts create a solid background for new studies and evaluations to prove the effectiveness of the ideas. Second, researchers will be able to learn more about organizations that initiate and fund programs. Finally, population safety and health have to be regularly improved, and the offered information will show what has been achieved and what must be additionally done. At the same time, there is always some space for improvement, and DNPs are free to choose their methods to apply the offered material and ensure public awareness of the chosen topic.
In general, the number of mental health concerns among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic is not always easy to predict. Thus, various federal agencies, research organizations, and individuals are involved in understanding the virus and its consequences. People who work with patients need to protect their health, and DNPs must address their projects to support this vulnerable group and offer the most valuable initiatives and reviews in a clear and comprehensible way.
References
Bhattacharjee, B., & Acharya, T. (2020). The COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on mental health in USA – A review with some coping strategies. Psychiatric Quarterly, 91(4), 1135-1145.
Biber, J., Ranes, B., Lawrence, S., Malpani, V., Trinh, T. T., Cyders, A., English, S., Staub, C. L., McCausland, K. L., Kosinski, M., Baranwal, N., Berg, D., & Pop, R. (2022). Mental health impact on healthcare workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic: A US cross-sectional survey study. Journal of Patient-Reported Outcomes, 6(1).
Cunningham, T., Chosewood, C., & Tyrawski, J. (2022). Health worker mental health initiative. CDC. Web.
Smallwood, N., & Willis, K. (2021). Mental health among healthcare workers during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Respirology, 26(11).