HASTINGS, Neb. (KSNB) – After decades in the emergency room, Ronda Ehley, Chief Nursing Officer at Mary Lanning Healthcare in Hastings, still carries the emotional scars \u2014 not just from what she\u2019s seen, but from how the public\u2019s view of healthcare has changed. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur world has changed since COVID,\u201d Ehley said. \u201cI never thought I would experience a pandemic in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ehley says that people\u2019s view of her job changed rapidly during the pandemic, adding stress on the entire medical profession. <\/p>\n
\u201cThings were so unknown. Things changed every day. It was really high stress for our staff and our providers,\u201d Ehley said. \u201cWe\u2019re still coming out of it, yet, I think the challenge that we face today as providers is the patients.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went from what we called heroes to zeros,\u201d Ehley recalled. \u201cPatients are angry. People are just angry. We deal with, even in our community, a lot of violence towards our healthcare providers.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the pandemic pushed on, this behavior took a toll on doctors and nurses, who felt like they couldn\u2019t help people who could be treated because of misinformation. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think sometimes our providers try so hard to do the right thing, and when that doesn\u2019t work, it does stress them out,\u201d Ehley said. \u201cI think the way our providers have to deal with it is they have to be confident. They have given the information they need. They\u2019ve explained the risks, the benefits, and we have [patients] sign a refusal. They\u2019ve just gotten to that point. It\u2019s been tough for our providers to settle into that, that some people will just say, \u2018No.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Ehley said that this change in the way that the public sees medicine takes a major toll on doctors, and makes them feel like they have failed, and that they are helpless. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have scientific evidence based practice behind us. We don\u2019t just pull things out of the air and do them,\u201d Ehley said. \u201cYou can\u2019t google stuff and know what we know. I think there\u2019s a bit of helplessness, but I think there\u2019s also a bit of anger.\u201d<\/p>\n
These emotions are hard for doctors to deal with, because they feel as if they are the healers, not the ones that need healing. <\/p>\n
This leads doctors to bottle up their feelings, which can lead to depression, addiction, and other side effects. Once doctors have these issues, they feel like there is no one to turn to out of fear of losing their license to practice. <\/p>\n
Every state but Nebraska and California have a Physician Health Program, or PHP, which allow doctors struggling with mental health or addiction issues to work with the state\u2019s medical board to ensure they don\u2019t lose their license.<\/p>\n
PHPs help doctors communicate directly with the state\u2019s health board to give them a layer of protection. This way doctors don\u2019t lose their license, and if they do they can get it back easier.<\/p>\n
While Nebraska doesn\u2019t currently have a program like this, Doctor Joann Schaefer, who was the Chief Medical Officer for the State of Nebraska, says the state is working on it, but she isn\u2019t waiting for the state to solve the problem. <\/p>\n
\u201cMedicine is hard,\u201d Dr. Schaefer said. \u201cAnd up until now, there hasn\u2019t been a truly 100% safe place for a physician to call and get help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Schaefer served as Nebraska\u2019s Chief Medical Officer for over 11 years, and during that time she saw how physicians struggled and felt like they had nowhere to go to.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was one of the people that would sign the suspensions and the revocations of licenses,\u201d Dr. Schaefer said. \u201cAnd when you look back at in the history of so many of the physicians, it started with major life events before they went off the rails.\u201d<\/p>\n
That is why she, along with a few other supporting physicians, founded LifeBridge<\/a>. The group is a confidential organization that tries to help doctors before an issue becomes serious enough for board intervention.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a public health perspective we\u2019re trying to work way upstream,\u201d Dr. Schaefer said. \u201cBefore there are any problems.\u201d<\/p>\n This program is one of the first of its kind, and Nebraska is the only state the group currently operates in. <\/p>\n The hope is that Nebraska doctors wouldn\u2019t need a program that involves the state\u2019s medical board so doctors will feel more free to reach out for help. <\/p>\n The program specializes in coaching medical professionals on how to curb these issues and thoughts before they could impact a doctor\u2019s performance. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have a variety of different topics that we talk about everything from burnout to stress to there was a bad event or a bad outcome and it\u2019s really tugging at the position, causing a lot of stress,\u201d Dr. Schaefer said. \u201cA physician can call and get coaching, and so there\u2019s no need for board involvement. The board is absolutely not aware of anybody that we coach. Nobody is aware. It is 100% confidential. We don\u2019t give any reports to the Board of Medicine, the legislature, employers, nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n LifeBridge is funded by many hospitals, so its services are free to those who need them. The hope is that by curbing depression and addiction early, hospitals won\u2019t see as much turnover. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want physicians to feel lonely and stressed out by themselves. There\u2019s always help out there for them,\u201d Dr. Schaefer said. \u201cWe\u2019re here, we\u2019re safe, and we really enjoy doing this. We enjoy helping people, and it\u2019s really made a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n LifeBridge has a long way to go, though, as many medical professionals are used to suffering in silence. <\/p>\n \u201cI think as a nurse, you just, most of the time, you just figure out yourself, \u2018How am I gonna deal with this,\u2019\u201d Ehley said.<\/p>\n If you want to contact LifeBridge you can call them at (888) 569-2036 or email them using this form<\/a>. <\/p>\n