![]() The hospital where she worked saw a major spike in Covid-19 patients. Rachel Ellsworth's nursing job became more and more stressful and despairing throughout the pandemic. Ellsworth felt supported, like the sacrifices she’d made were worth it. Residents of their southeast Florida community threw parades for them to thank them for their work. ![]() She and her colleagues talked about renting apartments and living apart from their families to serve their patients. When the pandemic began in spring 2020, her commitment was tested but not quashed. “I was just so excited to be there, so full of hope and compassion.” “I was the kind of person who went into work every day, like, literally, ‘Let’s go save lives,’ for 12 years” she said. Though she did all she could to save them, she also found purpose in giving her patients a “peaceful, dignified death” when it was time. The work energized her, and she felt privileged to witness some of the most important moments of people’s lives, when their worlds shifted for better or worse. She says she was “called” to the work.įor 10 of her 12 years in nursing, Ellsworth was an indefatigable intensive care nurse. Williams says such times have led to shifts in disability policy in the U.S.Nursing was more than a career to Rachel Ellsworth. Significant numbers of service members returned from Iraq and Afghanistan with traumatic brain injuries, for example. ![]() She says the government has encountered situations in the past when there was a sudden rise in the number of people needing accommodations at work. "We're considering how can we support these workers in what is a transformative time in their life." "We want to be responsive," says Williams. Through the middle of August, the Labor Department is holding an online dialogue, asking for input on policies that may help with workplace challenges arising from long COVID. Taryn Williams, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Disability Employment Policy, wants to hear from workers and employers. The Labor Department is crowdsourcing ideas for how to keep workers employed ![]() Bishof recently filed a discrimination lawsuit against the city and has become an advocate for COVID long haulers. The city of Palm Beach Gardens told NPR Bishof was terminated from her job for not meeting performance-related probationary standards. Having one employee whose productivity is severely compromised could end up negatively impacting the whole company, he says. "Majority of my team has no idea that I'm working from bed most of the time," says Qizilbash, a COVID long hauler who suffers chronic pain that he compares to wasp stings.Īs the CEO of a small business that manufactures health supplements, Qizilbash says he tries to be compassionate and at the same time, ruthlessly efficient. Still, not all employers have the means to offer the kind of accommodation an employee may need given their symptoms.īilal Qizilbash believes he would have been fired long ago had he not been the boss of his own company. Accommodations may be harder to come by in some jobs "Rather than determining whether an employee has a disability, your focus should be on the employee's limitations and whether there are effective accommodations that would enable the employee to perform essential job functions," the Labor Department says in its long COVID guide for employers. ![]() The goal is to get workers on a path back, says Roberta Etcheverry, CEO of Diversified Management Group, a disability management consulting firm.īut with long COVID, it's difficult to measure whether an employee is in fact on a path back. "We don't know."Īccommodations in the workplace might include flexibility in where someone works, extended leave, or a new role in a different department. Gutierrez finds herself stumped by questions on disability forms that ask how long an individual might be out or how long their illness may last. The duration and severity of symptoms varies wildly from person to person. The problem with coming up with accommodations for long COVID is that there are so many unknowns. Figuring out accommodations for long COVID can be complicated "If someone has to go back 100% when they start feeling a little bit better, they are going to crash and burn fast," she says. Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, professor of rehabilitation medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, has seen COVID play out in similar ways in other patients. "Maybe I wouldn't have gotten as sick as I got, because I wouldn't have been pushing myself to do the things that I knew couldn't do, but I kept trying and trying," she says.ĭr. Shots - Health News Tracking the coronavirus around the U.S.: See how your state is doing ![]()
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