Covid has taken a toll on health care workers over the last year and a half. Increased hospitalizations and quickly changing safety protocols have made all jobs in the medical field more difficult. 

Polls that healthcare workers took indicate that 62% of healthcare workers reported that Covid-19 has had a negative impact on their mental health. Yet, according to The Washington Post, when asked if they considered leaving the field, only 29% of people said yes.

Crystal Quercioli, a local certified pharmacy technician, gives her opinion about leaving. “No, I’m not going to leave just because of this pandemic.”

According to The Washington Post’s survey, younger healthcare workers have been impacted more than middle-aged people and older people.

Crystal, a registered CPhT(Certified Pharmacy Technician) at Cleveland Clinic shared some thoughts about what’s been going on since Covid started. She stated that her job did not get worse or harder since the pandemic started but there were some downs to the pandemic.

First, there are more safety protocols for the staff. They have to go through regular Covid testing. Her job did give staff an option on getting the vaccine.  Staff could have received the vaccine at work, but they did not make it mandatory.

Crystal also states that if someone in her job gets Covid she and her co-workers will not get notified.

Crystal has to take temperatures of patients and do a Covid screening. She shared some things that she does to keep her area clean. She has a box of disinfecting wipes and wipes everything down. Since she is not the only one to sit at the desk, she asks the people that sit there to wipe everything down when they are done. Her place of work also has a cleaning company that comes every night when everyone is gone and cleans the whole office. 

Aside from safety and cleaning protocols, Crystal said that supply issues have been another downside to the pandemic. She said that just recently one of their medicines is short-supplied, and because of this, some of their patients had to take a subcutaneous injection.

For the patients that Crystal works with, many of their illness have to do with their immune systems. Some of the patients have stopped their medications due to Covid. So once the vaccination was open to everyone, they got it, but some have not started back on their medications. 

Another difficulty of the pandemic has been a change to staff schedules.

There is also a new plan set where there is a 50/50 rotation where one week staff will go home and work and the next week they will work in the office. Crystal says that there is no way around the rotation, but states that her hours are fine and she likes them.

Many healthcare workers have been seeking an end to the pandemic, but now with the Delta Variant, the end is not looking so close. Some things have gone back to normal, but for those in the health care field, this pandemic is still impacting their daily lives and work.