ABSTRACT
COVID-19 is a deadly pandemic that has impacted all walks of human life. As we write this editorial, the traces of coronavirus still continue to remain in the world amid many continuing human efforts to wipe them out. Although the light of hope—the luminosity of freedom—is brimming on the horizon, it only consoles the soul. The sigh of relief is far off. Losses caused by this deadly monster have been countless—of lives, health, peace, love, protection, care, and security. Everyone's heart goes out to the other—we are human, after all. But that's not the best we can do in our fight against the Pandemic. We need to battle the malady. We need to gather the fragments strewn by the blow of the Pandemic and secure them from further destruction. We need to renew our creative energies. We need to renew our collective willing and acting. The tale … could not be one of a final victory. It could be only the record of what had had to be done, and what assuredly would have to be done again in the never-ending fight against terror and its relentless onslaughts, despite their personal afflictions, by all who, while unable to be saints but refusing to bow down to pestilences, strive their utmost to be healers.—Albert Camus, The Plague (1948). © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.
ABSTRACT
This edited volume records the amazing transformations brought about by leaders in legal education and legal profession. It captures experiences and experiments in the governance of law schools and legal profession during the COVID-19 pandemic as case studies;ideas which helped in resilience and which could show the way forward;the psychological, philosophical, and sociological aspects of the transformation;and the spiritual and material sources of motivation of the leadership. The contributions are along the following themes --- The shifting idea of law school: systems and processes;The "new normal” in legal profession;Psychological, philosophical, and sociological aspects of transformation;Experiences from global regions and countries;Legal education and legal profession in a post-COVID world. Through these five themes, and the eighteen contributions, the volume seeks to answer questions like --- how the educational and professional leaders adapted to the circumstances by building a "new normal”? How and to what extent their own legal education and professional experiences informed their actions during the Pandemic? How they re-imagined ambitions and reordered systems and processes? What type of guidance and support they received from the state and regulatory bodies? How they guaranteed the well-being of students, faculty, and staff during the Pandemic and the transition? How they upheld professional values and ethics when contexts of their application collapsed. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light the lacunae in the preparedness of healthcare systems across the globe. This preparedness also includes the safety of healthcare providers (HCPs) at various levels. Sudden spread of COVID-19 infection has created threatening and vulnerable conditions for the HCPs. The current pandemic situation has not only affected physical health of HCPs but also their mental health. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to understand the prevalence and severity of secondary traumatic stress, optimism parameters, along with states of mood experienced by the HCPs, viz., doctors, nurses and allied healthcare professionals (including Physiotherapist, Lab technicians, Phlebotomist, dieticians, administrative staff and clinical pharmacist), during the COVID-19 lockdown in India. METHODOLOGY: The assessment of level of secondary traumatic stress (STS), optimism/pessimism (via Life Orientation Test-Revised) and current mood states experienced by Indian HCPs in the present COVID-19 pandemic situation was done using a primary data of 2,008 HCPs from India during the first lockdown during April-May 2020. Data was collected through snow-ball sampling technique, reaching out to various medical health care professionals through social media platforms. RESULT: Amongst the study sample 88.2% of doctors, 79.2 of nurses and 58.6% of allied HCPs were found to have STS in varying severity. There was a female preponderance in the category of Severe STS. Higher optimism on the LOTR scale was observed among doctors at 39.3% followed by nurses at 26.7% and allied health care professionals 22.8%. The mood visual analogue scale which measures the "mood" during the survey indicated moderate mood states without any gender bias in the study sample. CONCLUSION: The current investigation sheds light on the magnitude of the STSS experienced by the HCPs in the Indian Subcontinent during the pandemic. This hitherto undiagnosed and unaddressed issue, calls for a dire need of creating better and accessible mental health programmes and facilities for the health care providers in India.