Significant numbers of health care workers are choosing to seek early retirement or have quit their jobs altogether to seek different employment. | Unsplash/Mulyadi
Significant numbers of health care workers are choosing to seek early retirement or have quit their jobs altogether to seek different employment. | Unsplash/Mulyadi
University of Iowa hospitals recently reported that the current COVID-19 surge is leading to staff burnout.
The chief executive officer of the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics reported that the openings for people in nursing, nursing assistance, food service, housekeeping and maintenance are in the hundreds due to people leaving the industry because of COVID-19, Siouxland Proud reported.
With the pandemic now having passed 18 months, significant numbers of health care workers are choosing to seek early retirement or have quit their jobs altogether to seek different employment, U.S. News reported.
"What I’m most concerned about is how much longer this pandemic is going to take and the toll that it has already taken on our healthcare workers," Suresh Gunasekaran, CEO of University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics in Iowa City, said according to U.S. News. "We are paying a pretty heavy price in terms of the mental health of our workforce, in terms of the physical workload that they see day in and day out."
The Iowa Department of Public Health reported that as of Sept. 22, the seven-day rate of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Iowa jumped more than 10%.
The agency also reported 81 additional deaths which brought the state's total death toll from COVID-19 to 6,482, Siouxland Proud reported.
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