In Their Own Words: COVID-19 and the Future of the Health Care Workforce
Online Viewing
- View the conversation on Twitter at @PetrieFlom using #FutureHCW.
- Watch the fully captioned event video.
Event Description
How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the health care workforce? And how will the pandemic reshape the health care workforce going forward?
It is not hard to find news stories about insufficient personal protective equipment, burnout, and the disproportionate toll of COVID-19 on health care workers. But on the ground, in the day-to-day, what has serving on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic been like for health care workers, in their own words?
We asked a broad range of health care workers – including ICU and ED nurses and physicians, medical and nursing students, emergency medical technicians, and leaders of professional groups within the health care sector – for narrative reflections on their experiences during the pandemic, with an eye toward the future: how can we learn from these experiences and better support their needs going forward?
Their answers formed a digital symposium on our blog Bill of Health. This companion event highlighted a few of their stories and provided a venue to discuss the overarching concerns and themes brought out by the symposium.
Panelists
- Introduction, Carmel Shachar, Executive Director, The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School
- Molly Levene, Graduate entry pre-specialty nursing student, Family Nurse Practitioner track, Yale School of Nursing; MPH, Tufts University School of Medicine; and previous Emergency Medical Technician, Pro EMS, Cambridge, MA
- Cynthia Orofo, Cardiothoracic ICU nurse, Tufts Medical Center; and Nursing PhD student, Northeastern University
- Lauren Oshry, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine; and Member, Section of Hematology and Oncology, Boston Medical Center
- Benjamin Podsiadlo, Clinical Director, Armstrong Ambulance Service, Arlington, MA
- Moderator: Stephen Wood, Visiting Fellow, Petrie-Flom Center; and Acute care nurse practitioner practicing emergency medicine, Boston, MA
Sponsored by the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School with support from the Oswald DeN. Cammann Fund at Harvard University.