Oct. 25, 2021

Carry on, my weary one: Persevering in the aftermath

"Frontline workers may have temporarily experienced a heightened sense of personal success and gratification, but I doubt many of us are still able to feel satisfied at this point, after all the repeated moral injuries and losing so many patients....

"Frontline workers may have temporarily experienced a heightened sense of personal success and gratification, but I doubt many of us are still able to feel satisfied at this point, after all the repeated moral injuries and losing so many patients. COVID-19 assuredly changed me. The virus changed my residency experience. It changed the hospital, and it changed the entire world. As Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently stated, 'We simply cannot revert instantly … to life as it was before COVID.' We must try our best to carry on, cautiously, into the new unknown era of vaccines and virulence. For me, that means wearing a mask in public long after restrictions are gone."

Elizabeth Sarah Haberl is a resident physician.

She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "Carry on, my weary one: Persevering in the aftermath." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/08/carry-on-my-weary-one-persevering-in-the-aftermath.html)