Healthcare Workers Battle Burnout With Spirituality

SPRING HILL, FL — “It is disheartening to see people who are not able to breathe on their own, and to have known a co-worker who was only in his thirties unable to make it,” remarked Nathan Tigue, an occupational therapy assistant who has worked in healthcare for ten years and resides in Spring Hill, Florida. Seeing patients in the hospital, especially those in critical condition, has stirred up feelings of deep sadness in Tigue, knowing that many of them will likely not survive.

Many in the medical field, like Tigue, are exhausted from working through the pandemic. With COVID variants straining short-staffed facilities across the country, some workers on the frontlines are experiencing added physical, mental, and emotional stress.

“What healthcare workers are experiencing is akin to domestic combat,” Andrew J. Smith, Ph.D., director of the University of Utah Health Occupational Trauma Program at the Huntsman Mental Health Institute, said in a press release from his institution.

According to a study conducted by Smith’s group, more than half of the doctors, nurses, and emergency responders providing COVID-19 care could be at risk for one or more mental health problems—including acute traumatic stress, depression, and anxiety.

Tigue has found much comfort in his faith as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. “Praying… is now especially faith-strengthening,” he says. Attending congregation meetings virtually has helped him to maintain a sense of normalcy by being able to associate with others who are facing many of the same challenges.

American psychological and psychiatric associations, while not advocating or endorsing any specific religion, acknowledge the role spirituality and religious faith can play in coping with distress and trauma.

Lawrence Onoda, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist in Mission Hills, California, noted some ways spirituality can help, including giving people “a positive hope and meaning toward life, comfort by looking for answers and strength from a higher power, and a collective shared experience of support and community.”

Spiritual videos and web articles published on JW.org have also benefited Tigue greatly. He noted, “JW.org has provided accurate and helpful information with articles to assist those who feel isolated, our view as Jehovah’s Witnesses on vaccination, and what the Bible teaches in relation to pandemics.”

And while those resources help Tigue find a measure of relief in coping with the stresses brought about by this disease today, he also cherishes a hope for a permanent solution: “God’s promise for the future of death and sickness being reversed is truly a comforting and wonderful thought that has helped me to endure through this pandemic.”

(For more information on gaining comfort through the scriptures, please see https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/peace-happiness/real-hope-future-bible-promises/