What We Heard: COVID-19 Fatigue and Healthcare Provider Burnout

The primary objective of Immunization Partnership Fund’s (IPF) community of practice (CoP) is to provide opportunities for partnership and knowledge exchange amongst recipients. These sessions continue to provide a rich source of qualitative knowledge that supplement the program’s regular reporting activities. The October CoP hosted 75 individuals from 49 unique recipient organizations. This report is a summary of the views and opinions shared by CoP participants during the October CoP session regarding the drivers of COVID-19 fatigue and burnout, and the best practices for alleviating exhaustion, while continuing to promote COVID-19 vaccines.

#Summary of Key Findings from the CoP

#Key themes relating to the main drivers for COVID-19 fatigue and burnout:

• Exhaustion from competing workloads, being short-staffed and overworked
• A lack of empathy, compassion, and appreciation from the public
• Feeling disappointed and hopeless that there is no end in sight for the pandemic and struggling to find joy in daily life and work-life activities

#Key themes relating to best practices to alleviate and prevent further COVID-19 fatigue and burnout:

• Taking a whole-health and inquiry-based approach
• Employing interdisciplinary approaches to health teams
• Practicing reflexivity
• Finding innovative ways to engage with communities, such as gamification
• Leveraging culturally safe approaches like the community ambassador model