The global epidemic of novel coronavirus infection has brought unprecedented changes to various sectors of society. Medical institutions are at the forefront of these changes, and in order to find out how this crisis has affected the work of healthcare professionals, Nikkei Research conducted a survey of 1,147 comedicals on their attitudes toward changes in their work due to the outbreak of new coronavirus infection. The results are presented in this column.
According to the survey, about 80% of the comedicals responded that their work has changed more or less (sum of “changed a lot,” “changed,” and “changed a little”). Nurses and physical therapists, in particular, were more likely than other professions to feel that their work had changed significantly, at 18.0% and 16.3%, respectively. This may be because the work of these two professions involves particularly close contact with patients.
On the other hand, less than 10% of the radiologists and dietitians responded “significant change,” probably because their work allows them to maintain a relatively high distance from patients, and the percentage of those who responded “significant change” was low.
Thus, it can be seen that the impact on comedicals was not uniform, and that there were differences in the impact of the new coronavirus disaster depending on the type of work.
Those who answered that there was a change were asked to describe the specific type of change, which could be classified into two categories: changes common to all job categories and changes applicable to specific comedicals.
One change common to all comedicals is the “strengthening of infection control measures.
The changes resulting from this impact can be divided into four major categories.
Some specific descriptions include:
The strengthening of infection control measures has both advantages and disadvantages, as noted in the description. The advantages are increased awareness of infection control measures and improved operational efficiency.
On the other hand, the disadvantage is the weakening of communication among hospital staff and patients/families. In a more serious case, the following comment was made
DX and other business efficiency improvements are expected to be promoted more and more in the future. On the other hand, how to maintain relationships with people will be re-examined now that the corona has settled down.
The following are two changes that were frequently described by specific comedicals. Please note that these are only opinions that emerged from the survey, and it is possible that there were similar or other characteristic changes in other comedicals not mentioned here.
The first is clinical technologists. Many of them mentioned that tests such as specimen collection and PCR had been added due to the coronavirus disaster. Specifically, they are as follows:
The second is physical therapists. There were many descriptions of changes in zoning, such as floor restrictions:
Other issues raised by the nurses, physical therapists, and dietitians included the dilution of relationships with patients and their families due to online access and restrictions on use, as mentioned above.
As mentioned in the common characteristics at the beginning of this report, these three occupations have more opportunities to interact with patients, and many of them described a decline in their interactions with patients and their families more often than they described a decline in their interactions with hospital staff.
Although the responses we have discussed here represent only a small portion of those who cooperated in the survey, we did find a few positive comments about how the promotion of DX has made their work more efficient.
However, the overwhelming majority of the respondents said that even today, the number of patients has not returned to the pre-Corona level, and that there is a shortage of manpower and a decrease in contact with patients. Some also said that the system that changed in Corona is still in place today. Furthermore, in April 2024, overtime regulations for physicians began. This regulation naturally affects not only physicians but also comedicals.