Treating the Frontline

Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

The psychological morbidity experienced by physicians, advanced practice practitioners (APPs), and nurses working during the COVID-19 pandemic included burnout, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). At the peaks of the pandemic, these clinicians were exposed to intense suffering, high death rates, decision-making under extreme uncertainty, prolonged work shifts, fear for their own and their families’ safety, and isolation due to self-quarantine.1-5 These experiences were psychologically challenging for some clinicians, even in the absence of preexisting mental health diagnoses.6,7

This pandemic-related syndrome has features of first-responder trauma, burnout, and depression.8 During the first peak of the pandemic, physicians, APPs, and nurses served as first responders.8 As the value of face masks became clear and as the vaccines arrived, these clinicians became the targets of politically motivated attacks.9 These incidences occurred on top of worsening burnout.10 While PTSD, moral distress, burnout, and depression are different constructs, there are associations between them.11,12

Inadequate pay and benefits add to their stresses and contribute to mounting vacancies in the Wildland Firefighter’s (WFF) workforce, making their work more dangerous and leaving vulnerable communities at greater risk.  

A temporary Wildland Firefighters (WFF) pay adjustment has expired, putting our federal WFFs at risk. Failing to act could mean that federal firefighters will endure a pay cut of up to 50% of base pay, up to $20,000.

https://wffoundation.org/mentalhealth