The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the world in almost every way possible, but in the aftermath of all that there were also a lot of things that were learned along the way. The outbreak was a blunt reminder of this indeed for proactive planning across healthcare service sectors in combination with a global awareness and willingness to cooperate.
Public health initiatives and the preparedness of those organizations which host them remains a top concern. Many things were exposed as flaws or shortcomings in medical care but the ability of human beings to adapt when pushed has created momentum among healthcare professionals and policy makers.
Those efforts, derived from the hard won lessons over the course of those tumultuous years are now being put into place. The following is a list of some of the quality public health services being employed in the post-COVID world.
Education
Throughout the course of the pandemic there was a near obsessive need for updates on information by many people in the public and private sectors. The amount of rational worry, fear, and anxieties which were a product of the lack of understanding which accompanied the lack of preparedness flew over the world meant that people craved relevant information.
Unfortunately, as has been documented and discussed since the very beginning, there were a host of opinions all along the spectrum of what should or should not be done to attend to the illness appropriately and effectively. In the wake of all this confusion, arguing, questioning, and speculation it has been proven that there needs to be more uniformity across organizations which inform and regulate public health standards. This requires a level of respect, patience, and open-mindedness between qualified professionals from different sectors such as biology, psychology, economics, medicine, and politics.
In creating those open minded, and safe discussion places, there can be a greater sense of trust and support which then becomes transferable to the public through various means. Examples of this include public access to information which is being provided to caregivers, support staff, leaders, and administration.
The developments, decisions, and information which is informing those decisions needs to be easily accessible as a way to create a broader pool of diversified knowledge base that, in analysis, becomes the sources of sound public health education material that can be disseminated to the waiting public. Websites, news casts, podcasts, open forums, and community meetings are examples of how education can trickle down to people at every level of society, benefiting the species as a whole.
More Reliance on Remote Care Services
It is hard to imagine what the world would have done or be like now without the technology which enabled remote work throughout those trying years— especially telehealth services. While remote care and telehealth services were already being used prior to the pandemic during emergencies, its use in routine patient care was still uncommon.
The necessitated acceleration and adoption due to the pandemic forced individuals, organizations, and systems to adopt these technologies at such a rate that the need for faster, more efficient means needed to be invented. Being that so much of these telehealth services has been field tested by nurse care practitioners and doctors and shown to not only be effective, but an efficient way to benefit medical teams and the patients they serve, many healthcare organizations have permanently switched over much of their daily operations to at least some hybridized usages.
This will continue not only out of past necessity but of modern ability.
Legislation
Politics were an inseparable element of the Covid-19 pandemic. While many people were dissatisfied or disillusioned by what or how policies were enacted, the precedence of much of what was transpiring created space for the flexibility, discovery, and implementation of policies which were meant to serve and protect all sectors of world order.
However, again referring back to the broad variety of opinions that constantly fluctuate during the crisis, the type, and processes by which many guidelines were enacted created more tension between differing parties. The calm which has followed the storm has given leaders the space and time needed to reevaluate at every level and organization of government historical policies, guidelines, and regulations. Much thought has been and should continuously be applied to the consideration of individual rights no matter the situation but most especially during extreme health crises.
The pandemic magnified the need for constant and ongoing conversations between a mass network of organizations which see to the consideration, evaluation, and implementation of these legislative policies and systems which support them.