This book shares the stories of frontline health workers - told in their own words - during the second wave of COVID-19 in Australia. It records the complex emotions health workers experienced as the pandemic unfolded and the challenges they faced in caring for themselves, their families, and their patients.

Marie Bismark is a public health physician, health lawyer and Associate Professor in the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne, Australia. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she provided mental health care to patients in the emergency department, intensive care unit, and on the COVID-19 ward of The Royal Melbourne Hospital. She also leads a research team at the University of Melbourne, focused on the interface between patient safety, clinician wellbeing, and health regulation.

Karen Willis is Professor of Public Health at Victoria University, Australia. She is a health sociologist and qualitative methodologist. She co-led the Australian Frontline Health Worker Study and is currently co-leading the Future-Proofing the Frontline project to develop interventions to support health workers during times of crisis. Her previous research has examined how patients and professionals navigate the healthcare system, self-management of chronic conditions, and the experience of loneliness for people with chronic conditions. She is co-editor of The Covid-19 Crisis: Social Perspectives (Routledge, 2021) and co-editor of Navigating Private and Public Healthcare: Experiences of Patients, Doctors and Policy-Makers (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).

Sophie Lewis is Senior Lecturer in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney, Australia. She has an inter-disciplinary background in sociology and public health and her research uses innovative qualitative methods to explore the experience of living with long-term conditions. Her current research examines how people with chronic illnesses experience loneliness, self-management support in patient/clinician interactions, end of life care decision-making, and the experiences of living with advanced cancer.

Natasha Smallwood is an Associate Professor in the Central Clinical School at Monash University, Australia, Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and Consultant Respiratory Physician at Alfred Health. Her research interests include symptom management, supporting patients with severe lung diseases, gender equity and clinician wellbeing. She co-led the Australian Frontline Health Worker Study and is currently co-leading the Future-Proofing the Frontline project to develop interventions to support health workers during times of crisis.

Foreword

Series foreword

Acknowledgements

Terms and abbreviations

1 Introduction

2 A roller-coaster of mood and meaning

3 Pervasive, precarious, and perilous

4 Self-care struggles and strategies

5 The impossible juggle of work and care

6 Missing the human connection

7 Dispensable and disillusioned

8 Overwork, burnout, and resignation

9 Leadership and teams

10 Communication and understanding

11 Feeling valued and appreciated

12 Showing up all the cracks

13 Not being able to hug a dying patient

14 Supporting emotional wellbeing

15 Purpose, compassion, and gratitude

16 Looking back, looking forwards

Postscript: to whoever is reading this

Index