A Nurse on the Frontline of the COVID Pandemic
My name is Haylea and I am a registered nurse at a small community hospital in Pennsylvania. I have been an RN for just over a year, but I have been working in healthcare for a total of five years now. I work on a telemetry/progressive care unit in the hospital and am used to taking care of complex patients. When I first heard about coronavirus or COVID-19 I was quite skeptical anything would really occur from it. I thought back to other viruses I have lived through in my lifetime, such as swine flu or even Ebola, and thought, ‘well I wasn’t really impacted by those, so how bad could this be?’
Boy was that ignorant of me. Covid has turned my work life and the entire healthcare system completely upside down. My unit was designated as the covid unit, so for about 6 months, those were the only patients who got admitted to our floor. In these past few months, I have seen some of the sickest patients in my career, with the scariest part being that covid has no target. I have taken care of patients with no serious medical problems prior to who spent 3 or so months in the hospital, on and off the ventilator, that end up so deconditioned they require more time in a rehabilitation facility before returning home to their families who have been unable to visit. I have seen patients in their nineties with many comorbidities completely asymptomatic that were found positive just by chance. I have never seen so many of my patients decompensate so quickly. From rapidly increasing oxygen demands, to fighting their fever of 105 all shift to just name a few things. All this change in the workplace has resulted in an extreme amount of stress on me and many other health care professionals. As a result, I spend most of my days feeling on edge and anxious when I never experienced any major anxiety daily in my life before. I can see the impacts of covid on caregivers being detrimental as we often tend to neglect caring for ourselves first.
Since covid has occurred I have changed my habits to take care of myself. I work 12-hour shifts and used to work them all in a row to have more days off. I have stopped scheduling so many days in a row so I can feel refreshed in between shifts. I also stopped picking up many of the extra hours I used to put in. I try and get outdoors and exercise on my days off, even if it’s just for a short walk. I am also thankful to have great family and friends to spend time with, especially for my amazing coworkers who are also my best friends who have gone through the same experiences with me.
My work life and personal life are still impacted by covid. My unit is still caring for positive patients, but luckily things have calmed down the past few weeks and our covid population has been decreased. However, I do fear for the upcoming flu season with the potential for another surge. I hope in the coming months we do not become numb to the CDC guidelines for covid such as face masks and social distancing and everyone can work together to keep covid under control.
