Trust is the key motivator in the willingness of health professionals working during the COVID outbreak. The bizarre outbreak has made doctors, nurses and other clinicians, regardless of their speciality, to treat people for an infection they have little knowledge about. Due to the lack of medical staff, many hospitals have called upon and requested retired physicians and nurses to join hands in fighting the pandemic. 

But under such circumstances, some patients are wary of the treatment.  The patients are struggling with the questions, whether the doctor or nurse is prepared to practice under these conditions? Do the professionals possess the knowledge or ideas about the virus that is needed to get better? Would the doctors or nurses be unbiased in their ways while treating them? These doubts create unrest in the patients’ minds and affect their readiness to be treated. 

Usually, the patient’s trust is gained through a series of visits with the doctors and the way they talk and provide solutions to the patient and the respective families. But in COVID situations, with the colossal number of patients, it is difficult for the doctors to maintain one-on-one contact and visit schedules. Moreover, the conditions require doctors and all the healthcare workers to cover themselves up into PPE suits to avoid being infected from the virus. And when you are being treated by someone who is covered from head to toe, it might interfere with a perception of trust. Hence, there is a heightened need for trust in clinicians at a time when many so many lives are in their hands. But how?

A simple thing that the healthcare providers in a hospital in the States did was by pasting their name and a picture on their uniforms/PPE buttons. In order to gain the patient’s trust, they too say that the people need to see how they look in flesh and bones. Hence, a picture provides the patient with an idea of who is treating him/her, bringing the trust factor in forefront. The pandemic needs a humanistic approach where the interactions also need to be patient-centric in order to gain their trust. 

We have seen many videos where nurses and doctors, covered in PPE, are trying to playfully cheer up a young patient or a child...given the weird face mask and PPE they refer to themselves as Donald Duck or Jaadu (alien from a popular bollywood movie) to amuse the patient. These heartwarming videos give an insight into the amount of effort being put in by the healthcare workers.

As a patient, trying to explain the doctor about how you are feeling, emotionally and physically might help the doctors to respond to you and your concerns accordingly. This way, just as the healthcare professionals are trying to take one step towards helping you, you can take one step towards trusting them in this battle against COVID.