Frontline Staff Morale Boosters For Essential During Swine Flu Pandemic

Main Category: Swine Flu
Also Included In: Flu / Cold / SARS;  Public Health;  Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses
Article Date: 01 May 2009 - 8:00 PDT

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Emergency care staff are likely to bear the emotional brunt of the effects of a pandemic in the UK, and hospital trusts must prepare them adequately and take steps to look after them properly at this time, warn researchers in guidance published ahead of print in Emergency Medicine Journal.

Although the guidance was written with a pandemic sparked by bird flu in mind, its recommendations apply equally to the current outbreak of swine flu, which may become a pandemic.

The guidance is based on learning from the experience of the handling of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Hong Kong, and draws on feedback from emergency and intensive care staff at hospitals in Hong Kong.

It outlines 10 essential steps for emergency care departments, including protecting staff from airborne infection, the provision of appropriate training, and ensuring that robust staffing and medical procedures for dealing with infected patients are in place.

But it also emphasises the support staff will need, pointing out that the SARS experience suggests that: "... living through an epidemic or pandemic would be one of the most emotive and challenging experiences of our professional lives."

During the SARS epidemic, staff in Hong Kong did not return home for up to three months in a bid to curb the risk of passing on the infection to family and friends. They stayed in hospital or nearby rented accommodation.

The guidance recommends that NHS staff might need to consider similar options, including making alternative arrangements for the care of children or elderly relatives.

It also urges trusts to consider how they might boost staff morale, which will inevitably suffer as a consequence of long hours in a high risk environment away from families.

Based on feedback from frontline staff, trusts might want to consider the availability of healthy food on tap throughout the day, free coffee and snacks, laundry facilities, free phone calls and the availability of Skype or Google Talk, the guidance recommends.

The guidance also warns that staff will inevitably have to make difficult choices as demand for care will outstrip capacity, no matter how well prepared a trust is.

"It will not be possible to admit all patients with flu during a pandemic outbreak. Difficult decisions will need to be made," says the guidance, pointing out that some people will die, because there simply won't be enough critical care or ventilator support available to cope.

"10 things your emergency department should consider to prepare for pandemic influenza"
Online First Emerg Med J 2009; doi 10.1136/emj.2008.061499

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