At this moment, when an expected surge in COVID-19 patients has yet to arrive, physicians, residents and other health-care workers may be feeling a sense of “anticipatory anxiety,” says Brenda Senger, director of the Saskatchewan Medical Association’s (SMA) Physician Support Programs. Physicians and residents may have a sense that their world has changed, but into what they do not yet know.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority has announced additional precautionary measures in the last week, including screening and masking requirements for health-care providers. This involves a daily screen in the morning to ensure no influenza type illness.

“Safety is our top priority,” Saskatchewan Health Authority CEO Scott Livingstone said. “That is why we continue to escalate our efforts to protect our patients and health care providers. Requiring these daily screening practices and adapting our approach to masking will help us stop the spread of COVID-19 and help protect our workforce to ensure our health care services are there when needed.”

Full info on the SHA's new precautions is available here.

The director of the SMA also had to say, that the health-care system is not operating as it is normally did, and this is due to a sense of loss for everything they know. Staff may understand this is temporary, but there is also an understanding of how their workplaces and lives have changed forever, and a collective loss of sense of safety.

It is important to not let people spiral into focusing on worst case scenarios, as if and when a surge of COVID-19 cases arrives, physicians will be on “auto-pilot,” Senger said. They will do what they have been trained to do, and what they are called to do. They have a tremendous capacity to work in the moment and to focus on the task at hand. She added that physicians are used to working long hours under stresses most people don’t endure, and they will have to make decisions on people’s health that could be life or death, or could affect the long-term health of their patients.

In these times, a mental health group has been created to treat these physicians if they end up being drained mentally and physically. A team consisting of the mentioned Brenda Senger, and Dr. Alana Holt who has been involved with the Saskatchewan Medical Association’s Physician Health Program for 12 years.