Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic continues, and its negative effects are manifestedin damage to health, economy and social resilience. The way to deal withthe complex challenges and conflicts that this crisis presents is to findsolutions of balance and compromise. Maintaining the right balance maysave lives, reduce burn-out and help to cope with the crisis over time. Inthis context, one of the sensitive issues that needs to be addressed is findingthe right balance between enabling family members to visit their loved onesin geriatric centers and nursing homes while minimizing the risk that visitors will infect hospitalized patients or staff.The theme of family visits of patients hospitalized in geriatric centers andnursing homes during the Covid-19 pandemic occupies a central place inthe public agenda. The families’ struggle for this humane and justified purpose, supported by organizations for the rights of the elderly and themedia, creates a pseudo-conflict with the treating staff members, whosevoices, in this highly important matter, are not heard. During this period,geriatric centers face complex challenges. The already understaffed hospitalteam, deals with the addition of new wards to treat patients with Covid-19,while preserving the function of the geriatric center as a hospital thatprovides unique services to patients who are negative for SARS-CoV-2,among them, end-of-life patients in need of supportive care, patients withadvanced dementia and behavioral disorders and patients in need forrehabilitation. Exposure to a visitor that carries the virus not only puts allpatients and staff at risk of infection but may force staff members to aperiod of confinement and, as a consequence, reduce even more the numberof available nurses, physicians and other health care providers. This articlepresents the staff difficulties, risks, concerns and challenges with a specificreference to the issue of family visits, during the era of Covid-19 pandemic. It also emphasizes the lack of awareness, understanding, empathy andsupport to the staffs’ daily struggle to keep the delicate balance betweenen abling family visits and keeping the patients and staff safe during a lifethreatening long-lasting pandemic
With an English summary.
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