Health workers cope with a huge amount of stress - how to build a resilient health system in South Africa

By Yogan Pillay, Extraordinary Professor in the Division of Health Systems and Public Health, Stellenbosch University
Flavia Senkubuge, Deputy Dean: Health Stakeholder Relations in the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria
Lucy Gilson, Professor and Head, Health Policy and Systems Division, School of Public Health, University of Cape Town
Saiendhra Moodley, Public Health Medicine Specialist and Senior Lecturer, University of Pretoria
Suzi Malan, Manager: Partnerships and Projects at Department of Family Medicine, University of Pretoria

Popular and academic literature is replete with examples of how to cope with daily stresses. Mental health professions have also long researched and implemented strategies to deal with burnout from workplace stressors.

Coping with stress is not a new phenomenon. But COVID-19 and the responses to the pandemic have increased our attention on how people and systems cope with stress-inducing shocks.

This should not surprise…

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