Throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been rolling shutdowns, stay-at-home orders, mask mandates (and bans on mask mandates), and an array of other public health policy measures designed to alternately prevent and contain the spread of disease and protect freedom of choice. These policies generated charged political conversations across the world as everyone learned to exist in “The New Normal” while battling uncertainty, grief, illness, and fear in their own ways.

However, some individuals were never subject to shutdowns and instead continued to work heroically under unimaginable workplace stress and unprecedented staffing shortages. In the healthcare arena, the impact of this burnout will be felt for years, as workers leave the field in droves.

Health professional graduate students and recent grads, please share your thoughts related to any of the following:

Working during the pandemic

• What was your experience doing the work you do during the pandemic?
• Where did you find support? What did you find most difficult?
• Have you questioned your career choice or considered switching fields as a result of this stress?
• What recommendations do you have to help avoid burnout?

Far-reaching consequences

• How do you see burnout affecting patient care in your setting?
• In what ways do you think the stress on healthcare workers will alter the course of healthcare in the future?
• What do you think could be done on an organizational level to improve employee mental health and retention?
• Did the experience of studying and working during the pandemic teach you anything new about the field, your colleagues, or the area you work in?

Important information for submission:

Types of submissions: We accept a broad range of formats, including personal narrative essays, opinion pieces, journalism, popular science articles, literary fiction, poetry, film, photography, illustrations, mixed media, audio, and graphic designs. Most of our written pieces are similar to op-ed pieces.

Deadline to submit: April 30, 2022

Images: We invite and encourage image submissions to accompany all written work. This may be original or not. Include relevant citations for all images (artist name, link to work if available), and indicate that images are royalty-free or you have permission to use them.

Please email editorinchief@interveneupstream.org with additional questions!

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Vaughn Edelson

Vaughn is a part-time candidate in the University of Miami Master of Public Health-Master of Public Administration joint degree program (2023). Her full-time gig is as Senior Project Manager at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, where she works in research administration on faculty development initiatives for cancer clinicians and researchers. Vaughn came to the U after a decade working with community-based and disease-specific organizations, industry and academic medical center partners, government agencies, and others to bring easily accessible information about health and specific health conditions to the public. Vaughn earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Brown University and is a lifelong fitness junkie.

Latest posts by Vaughn Edelson (see all)

• What’s Your Public Health “Why”? - May 3, 2023
• Why Public Health? - April 16, 2023
• Call for Submissions: Burnout During the Pandemic - November 14, 2021