‘COVID Hit Us All So Hard’: Vt. Hospice Workers Say PTSD Will Last Years

During the pandemic, many hospice workers cared for patients who were dying without their families around them, often in long-term care facilities like Birchwood Terrace in Burlington, shown here. Some say this has had a lasting impact on them. (Elodie Reed/VPR)

The trauma of the pandemic has affected many: health care workers, first responders, even grocery store clerks. Hospice workers – who deal with death every day – were heavily affected.

The isolation of the coronavirus pandemic turned hospice care on its head. While the death rate from COVID-19 has dropped, some hospice workers worry about the next surge and the personal toll the past year has taken.

Hospice care focuses on the quality of life, comfort and emotional well-being of people near the end of their lives. The work is typically slow and calm.

CarrieRae Shamel is a medical social worker for BAYADA, a private home health care company. “I absolutely love my job,” she said of hospice work.

Read the rest of the story at VPR’s website.