Growing Shortage of Healthcare Workers Poses an Existential Threat to the Public Health SystemStrategies to Mitigate this Challenge in the Face of COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented challenge for society. Supporting the mental health of medical staff and affiliated healthcare workers (staff) is a critical part of the public health response. This paper details the effects on staff and addresses some of the organisational, team and individual considerations for supporting staff (pragmatically) during this pandemic. Leaders at all levels of health care organisations will find this a valuable resource.

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The National Association for the Promotion of Social Science: Its Contribution to Victorian Health Reform, 1857–1886

Albion A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies ◽

10.2307/4048958 ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 17 (3) ◽

pp. 279-299 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Ronald K. Huch

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Central Government ◽

Road Maintenance ◽

Poor Law ◽

The Public ◽

Sanitary Condition ◽

Critical Issues ◽

The Face ◽

Government Interference ◽

National Control

The campaign for better public health was a major social issue in England during the second half of the nineteenth century. As in the case of Poor Law and factory reform, Edwin Chadwick stands as the person who directed public interest toward the need for sanitary reform. He did this through his association with the Poor Law Commission in the late 1830s, then through his seminal and widely read 1842 Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population. Chadwick's report captured the minds of many in the British upper middle class. The Health of Towns Association, founded in 1844, helped to diffuse information on the “physical and moral evils that result from the present defective sewerage, drainage, supply of water, air, and light. …” Although the sanitary reformers had made some minor gains by 1847, they had failed to produce a satisfactory bill that would allow government some role in coordinating sanitary improvement. At this point, neither Chadwick, nor any other leading proponent of sanitary legislation wanted to put full authority in the hands of the central government, but they did desire a more efficient combination of local and national control.The sanitary reformers, and particularly Chadwick, achieved a measure of success in 1848 when the Public Health Bill received parliamentary approval. It was hoped the Act would bring about a useful consolidation of responsibility for drainage, sewerage, water supply, and road maintenance. Instead, the legislation spurred a furious debate over how much national government interference was acceptable. It did little to improve public health because the argument over government interference for a time took attention away from critical issues of sanitation reform. Although never completely overcome, the argument over principles faded in the 1850s in the face of an urgent need for reform.

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Human Rights in a Pandemic

Outlines of global transformations politics economics law ◽

10.23932/2542-0240-2020-13-5-13 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (5) ◽

pp. 219-252

Author(s):

A. Zhebit

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Human Rights ◽

Social Economic ◽

Health Policies ◽

The Political ◽

Public Health Policies ◽

The Public ◽

Social Actions ◽

Travel Restrictions ◽

The Face

The article is focused on the problem of human rights (HRs), limited or derogated from, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While addressing some HRs limitations, derogations and even abuses, and their consequent problems, the aim is to try to analyze policy, social, moral and personal dilemmas of HRs restrictions as well as motivations behind the types of public and social behavior, in the course of the pandemic, in response to the public measures of sanitation, social distancing and confinement, travel restrictions and social assistance, recommended by the WHO and selectively followed by governments. Learning from some old experience and deriving new lessons from the pandemic, as well as from public and social actions and reactions, the purpose of the present article is to assess whether or not public health policies in this context, implemented nationally or internationally, can promote change in the HRs paradigm in the face of the existing dilemmas and dichotomies in HRs, aggravated by the pandemic. The conclusion is that the extant HRs paradigm should be redefined to address better the political, social, economic, environmental and, especially, existential exigencies of “rainy times”, thus leading to the creation of a new universal HRs code or to harmonizing the existing one.

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Assessment of Radiation Risk on Healthcare Workers and Public in & around Two Largest Hospital Campuses of Bangladesh

European Journal of Medical and Health Sciences ◽

10.34104/ejmhs.021.048057 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 48-57

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Effective Dose ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Radiation Risk ◽

Radiation Monitoring ◽

Radiation Hazard ◽

Lifetime Cancer Risk ◽

The Public ◽

Continuous Radiation ◽

Yearly Effective Dose

Ionizing radiation gives tremendous benefit to mankind in the hospital through diagnosis and treatment to patients but unnecessary radiation may cause harm to healthcare workers & the public. The purpose of the study is to continuous radiation monitoring in & around the three largest radiological facilities of Bangladesh such as Atomic Energy Centre Dhaka (AECD), Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) & Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) campuses, and estimation of radiation risk on healthcare workers & public health. Continuous radiation monitoring was performed in & around the AECD, DMCH, BSMMU campuses from August-October 2020 using the Chemiluminescent Dosimeters. The yearly effective doses to healthcare workers and the public due to radiation released from the facilities were ranged from 0.606 ± 0.031 mSv to 0.801 ± 0.0.042 mSv with a mean of 0.707 ± 0.053 mSv. The excess lifetime cancer risk (ELCR) on healthcare workers & public health were evaluated based on the yearly effective dose and ranged from 2.486 Χ 10-3 to 3.287 Χ 10-3 with a mean of 2.900 Χ 10-3. The average yearly effective dose and ELCR on healthcare workers & public health were lower than those of the worldwide permissible values. Continuous radiation monitoring in & around the largest radiological facilities is required for detection of the radiation generating equipment’s malfunctions and improper handling of the radioactive materials. The study would help for minimization of radiation risk on healthcare workers & the public and this keeps the hospital’s environment free from radiation hazard.

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Determinants of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and vaccine uptake in a national cohort of U.S. adults

10.1101/2021.05.12.21257116 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Madhura S Rane ◽

Shivani Kochhar ◽

Emily Poehlein ◽

William You ◽

McKaylee Robertson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Vaccine Uptake ◽

Vaccine Hesitancy ◽

Lower Odds ◽

The Public ◽

National Longitudinal Study ◽

Public Health Threat ◽

National Cohort ◽

The U.S

Background Vaccine hesitancy in the U.S. may limit the potential to alleviate the public health threat caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods We estimated trends in and correlates of vaccine hesitancy, and its association with subsequent vaccine uptake among 5,085 United States adults from the CHASING COVID Cohort study, a national longitudinal study. Trends in willingness to vaccinate were examined longitudinally in three rounds of interviews from September to December 2020. We assessed correlates of willingness to vaccinate in December 2020. We also estimated the association between willingness to vaccinate in December 2020 and subsequent vaccine uptake in February 2021. Results Vaccine hesitancy and resistance decreased from 51% and 8% in September 2020 to 35% and 5% in December 2020, respectively. Compared to Non-Hispanic (NH) White participants, NH Black and Hispanic participants had higher adjusted odds ratios (aOR) for both vaccine hesitancy (aOR: 3.3 [95% CI: 2.6, 4.2] for NH Black and 1.8 [95% CI: 1.5, 2.2] for Hispanic) and vaccine resistance (aOR: 6.4 [95% CI: 4.3, 9.4] for NH Black and 1.9 [95% CI: 1.3, 2.7] for Hispanic). Willingness to vaccinate was associated with lower odds of vaccine uptake among 65+ year olds (aOR: 0.4, 95% CI: 0.3, 0.6 for hesitancy; aOR: 0.1, 95% CI: 0.01, 0.6 for resistance) and healthcare workers (aOR: 0.2, 95% CI: 0.1, 0.3 for hesitancy; aOR: 0.04, 95% CI: 0.006, 0.2 for resistance). Conclusions Awareness and distribution efforts should focus on vaccine hesitant vulnerable populations.

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War and Health

10.18574/nyu/9781479875962.001.0001 ◽

2019 ◽

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Social Workers ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Military Families ◽

Ethnographic Research ◽

The Public ◽

Us Military ◽

The People ◽

The Us ◽

Drone Strikes

War affects human lives and public health far beyond the battlefield, long after combat ceases. Based on ethnographic research by anthropologists, healthcare workers, social workers, and activists, these chapters cover a range of subjects from maternal health in Afghanistan, to the public health effects of US drone strikes in Pakistan, to Iraq’s deteriorating cancer care system, to the struggles of US military families to recover from combat-related trauma, among other topics. With a spotlight on the US-led wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, started ostensibly to root out terrorism, the book argues that the terror and wounds of war have no clear resolution for the people who experience it, and for the communities where battles are fought.

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Health and Human Rights: Old Wine in New Bottles?

The Journal of Law Medicine & Ethics ◽

10.1111/j.1748-720x.2002.tb00423.x ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 30 (4) ◽

pp. 522-532 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Gerald M. Oppenheimer ◽

Ronald Bayer ◽

James Colgrove

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

At Risk ◽

Human Rights ◽

Social Change ◽

Ethnic Minorities ◽

Health And Human Rights ◽

The Public ◽

Racial And Ethnic Minorities ◽

Aids Epidemic ◽

The Face

It is one of the remarkable and significant consequence of the AIDS epidemic that out of the context of enormous suffering and death there emerged a forceful set of ideas linking the domains of health and human rights. At first, the effort centered on the observation that protecting individuals from discrimination and unwarranted intrusions on liberty were, contrary to previous epidemics, crucial to protecting the public health and interrupting the spread of HIV But in fairly short order, the scope of the health and human rights perspective expanded dramatically to focus on the ways in which the most fundamental social arrangements rendered individuals and communities vulnerable to HIV Racial and ethnic minorities, those who were marginalized, and women were at risk because of their subordinate status. In the face of such an understanding, nothing short of social change could be adequate to the challenge posed by the AIDS epidemic.

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How evolutionary behavioural sciences can help us understand behaviour in a pandemic

Evolution Medicine and Public Health ◽

10.1093/emph/eoaa038 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2020 (1) ◽

pp. 264-278

Author(s):

Megan Arnot ◽

Eva Brandl ◽

O L K Campbell ◽

Yuan Chen ◽

Juan Du ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Behaviour Change ◽

Evolutionary Dynamics ◽

Inclusive Fitness ◽

Behavioural Change ◽

Best Interests ◽

The Public ◽

The Face ◽

The Individual ◽

Behavioural Sciences

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has brought science into the public eye and to the attention of governments more than ever before. Much of this attention is on work in epidemiology, virology and public health, with most behavioural advice in public health focusing squarely on ‘proximate’ determinants of behaviour. While epidemiological models are powerful tools to predict the spread of disease when human behaviour is stable, most do not incorporate behavioural change. The evolutionary basis of our preferences and the cultural evolutionary dynamics of our beliefs drive behavioural change, so understanding these evolutionary processes can help inform individual and government decision-making in the face of a pandemic. Lay summary: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought behavioural sciences into the public eye: Without vaccinations, stopping the spread of the virus must rely on behaviour change by limiting contact between people. On the face of it, “stop seeing people” sounds simple. In practice, this is hard. Here we outline how an evolutionary perspective on behaviour change can provide additional insights. Evolutionary theory postulates that our psychology and behaviour did not evolve to maximize our health or that of others. Instead, individuals are expected to act to maximise their inclusive fitness (i.e, spreading our genes) – which can lead to a conflict between behaviours that are in the best interests for the individual, and behaviours that stop the spread of the virus. By examining the ultimate explanations of behaviour related to pandemic-management (such as behavioural compliance and social distancing), we conclude that “good of the group” arguments and “one size fits all” policies are unlikely to encourage behaviour change over the long-term. Sustained behaviour change to keep pandemics at bay is much more likely to emerge from environmental change, so governments and policy makers may need to facilitate significant social change – such as improving life experiences for disadvantaged groups.

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COVID-19 pandemic causing medical and public health ethical dilemmas: A case report and review of literature

Qualitative Research in Medicine & Healthcare ◽

10.4081/qrmh.2021.9690 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Jarelys Hernandez ◽

Barbara Lubrano di Ciccone ◽

Sarah Thirlwell ◽

Margaret Booth-Jones ◽

Sadaf Aslam ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Healthcare Workers ◽

Hematological Malignancy ◽

Ethical Dilemmas ◽

Standard Of Care ◽

Moral Injury ◽

Review Of Literature ◽

Ethical Challenges ◽

Advanced Directive ◽

The Public

The COVID-19 pandemic presented myriad of unprecedented and daunting ethical dilemmas to healthcare workers, patients, their families, and the public health. Here we present a case of a 42-years-old Hispanic female with underlying hematological malignancy that developed severe SARS-COV-2 infection amidst the pandemic. This case illustrates some remarkable ethical dilemmas during pandemic times, including the lack of advanced directive planning, the repercussions of restricting family visits, and what ethics in crisis and moral injury entails. Identifying the ethical challenges emerging from the pandemic will assist physicians and other providers in making proper decisions and maintaining the best standard of care.

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