KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — According to health officials, Omicron is impacting the national workforce to levels never seen before. The highly contagious variant is keeping some medical employees home sick while leaving others to face burnt out. That means extra shifts for already burnt-out health care workers.
Dr. Tyler Dougherty with South College School of Pharmacy said now that we're seeing a second major spike in COVID-19 cases, it's hard for those who are stepping into the front lines.
"These workers, these pharmacy techs are working their tails off and they're tired," he said.
Before the pandemic, you might have thought of a pharmacy primarily as a place to fill your prescriptions. Now it's the prime COVID-19 one-stop-shop.
The staff shortage doesn’t just impact hospital workers, it’s impacting healthcare workers across the board.
"You might now recognize the number of people they're seeing in a day, whether its's just for prescriptions or vaccination or for testing of all of the above, it's burning them out," Dougherty said.
Health care workers across the medical field are stepping into positions they didn't necessarily sign up for.
"It adds a whole other layer to our job," he said.
"The number of people that have either left health care professions that are sick or looking for another job because they have been giving it their all for so long, they can't maintain the pace," he said.
This doesn't just impact people sick with COVID-19. Staffing shortages, Dougherty said, have a ripple effect
"You see hospital systems that are running on such short staffing levels that, you know, when people have a car wreck and they don't have people at the hospital to be able to accommodate all this stuff, that person is really who is being impacted," he said.
Despite the cold, health care workers are in the field and in the trenches.
At a North Shore Clinical testing site in Fountain City, there are two employees administering COVID-19 tests throughout the day. North Shore Clinical Operations Manager Tony Aqquad is one of them.
"Right now, we're mainly the only ones offering rapids," he said. “We’re just trying to help the community.”
They are trying to keep as many feet on the ground as possible, but with a recent uptick in testing, he said, it isn’t easy.
"It was definitely a surprise. In about two weeks, this site was only doing about ten tests per day, and now we average over 100," Aqquad said.
Several hospitals in East Tennessee are hiring - and they could use the help. North Knoxville Medical Center said you can stop by for an immediate interview.