COVID-19

Return To ME

/ Marjorie / Leave a comment

For eight months, I have been silent. It’s not that I don’t want to write… When I am just about to pull out my laptop, something gets in my way. It’s my To Do List, the telephone, the need to tidy my surroundings before I do something that requires sitting. More accurately, I get in my way. The excuses are really my tendency to procrastinate. I know that this will be good for me – to write and get everything off my chest.

I am so much better than before. Truly. Seriously. I promise I am.

What has helped me over the last several months, is that I finally put myself first. I leveled up my meditating game and have been making breakthroughs thanks to Dan Harris and crew at Ten Percent Happier. I have been doing MORE – more yoga, more listening to music, more cooking, more sitting down and doing NOTHING. It was a struggle not to feel like I should be doing more and being more “productive.” Thankfully, I came to the realization that, even if I was doing “nothing,” that that was actually SOMETHING for me and my mental health.

Meanwhile, things at work are interesting. COVID brought on different challenges, but then we all got used to the way we had to live our lives (N95 masks, all the PPE, negative pressure rooms, etc.). In the last six months, came another change – the loss of staff to lucrative agency contracts. My former co-workers have not been traveling out of state, just staying local. In fact, it feels like all the big hospitals in the city have just exchanged staff. We have been lucky to get some talented nurses who are very nice and fun to work with. Agency work isn’t for everyone, so we have added new staff as well. As a result, I have been teaching – A LOT. I actually enjoy it, but it doesn’t hurt that we get extra pay for precepting.

Watching my friends leave to pursue agency contracts has been hard. I completely understand why they are doing it, but still… It feels a little like breaking up.

Inevitably, I think that I will be going the agency route too. My boyfriend and I have been talking about moving to another state, so for now, I am putting agency opportunities on hold. Thoughts about leaving my current job make me sad, but things have changed so much that one way or another, it will never been what it once was.

Yes, change is inevitable. I have to accept this and be willing to let go of my comfort zone. The way I choose to look at the state of nursing and the uptick in agency staff is that I am increasing my network of nurse friends. Operating Room Nursing is such a small world. There aren’t many of us out there, so it stands to reason that I will eventually work with my friends again! And I’m good with that.

With all the changes in my personal life, professional life, and the world in general, it feels like I found my center and ready to ride whatever wave comes next.

Living On The Edge

/ Marjorie / Leave a comment

It looks so calm outside. The sun is shining. There are cars on the road and people walking around. It looks like any other spring day in Chicago.

It’s not any other day because here I am, at home, feeling like all the worry and anxiety I suppressed about this virus bubble up. I should limit my social media time. Really. The private Facebook group for my fellow nurses at my hospital is informative, but sometimes it takes me down the dark, winding path of despair. Issues are brought to light that are familiar in other institutions across the country, even the globe. The same pressing issues are at my hospital.

Not enough Personal Protective Equipment… Inadequate Personal Protective Equipment… Not enough COVID-19 tests… Not being notified if you take care of a COVID-19 patient… Not being tested after exposure to a possible COVID-19 patient… Changing guidelines from the CDC based on availability of supplies in this country and not because of science… Finding out that someone you worked with was just diagnosed… Worrying you might bring the virus home to your loved ones…

I try not start my day on social media, but then the fear of missing important information sucks me in. Then the stress… Why do I do this to myself? And on my day off no less…

Do nurses ever really get a day off in a crisis even when they are not at work?

I am also in a Facebook group called COVID-19 FOR HEALTHCARE WORKERS. Based on posts from frontline healthcare providers in Italy and other parts of the world, I am anticipating that our situation is about to get worse. I’m gearing up by seeking out Best Practices. It is so sad that I may benefit from the horrific experiences of my fellow nurses. May God have mercy…

I wonder, is everyone awake and ready? I hope so…

Calm Before the Storm

/ Marjorie / Leave a comment

Unprecedented has to be my least favorite word these days. It feels like every news report (over)uses that word. Basically, what I’m hearing is that no one – not our government, the CDC, our hospital administrators – really knows what to do and is figuring it out on a day-by-day, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute basis. I was hoping was that, at the very least, our elected officials had an emergency plan in place. Makes sense, right? There has been sufficient warning by epidemiologists in the past about possible global pandemics. When I am in a procedure, I have a plan for emergencies like a cardiac arrest, excessive loss of blood, etc. The likelihood in most cases is low, but I am always ready. Why aren’t our elected officials held to the same standard when their decisions affect the lives of many?

I am frustrated and frightened by the whole situation….but I press on.

Over the last week, I have tried to stay as updated as possible by trying to find reliable sources about the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of COVID-19, the challenges shared by frontline healthcare workers all over the world, and the developing situation in my home city. Needless to say, it is difficult and completely overwhelming. And !@#$-ing scary.

The first time I heard about COVID-19 in a work e-mail was in late February. At that time, no alarms were going off. It felt more like a head’s up than a warning. Then information went from a slow trickle to a continuous flow. Currently, e-mails are packed with paragraph after paragraph of what the hospital is doing, what the city is doing, what we should do in various scenarios, what numbers to call, etc. All this makes my head spin. Ugh. How am I managing all this information? I created a COVID-19 folder in my work account just so that I could track the updates and make sure I know what’s what.

Needless to say, there has been confusion, anger, and anxiety among my fellow staff members in the OR. Totally understandable. We are accustomed to knowing what to do, even when a trauma comes in. We are used to seeing the worst of the worst. We are at a Level I Trauma and Research Center on the south side of Chicago, for Pete’s sake! Our preparation for COVID-19 was nothing like our Trauma Readiness Training two years ago. The hospital was all over it. But now? Why is this different?

Go ahead… Say it… UNPRECEDENTED.

So there have been a lot of What If discussions floating around the unit. Personally, I try not to participate. It is not helpful unless the What If’s are followed by a plan. I want to hear a plan.

Can someone PLEASE give us a plan???

Last Tuesday, St. Patrick’s Day, was the first day of the cancellation of elective surgeries. Our whole Ambulatory Surgery OR was shut down and the staff sent home on Low Census with a possible re-open date of April 15th. It was a shock that rippled through every OR (and we have 3 different OR units – Adult, Pediatrics, and Ambulatory). So many question followed… I still have questions.

The cancellation of elective surgeries also impacted the Adult OR (the Main OR) where I work. It has slowed down so much, that adjustments have been made to our schedules to low census some of us on different days. Still, we are “on reserve.” All of us in the OR know that it is just a matter of time before there is a need to float us to other areas of the hospital. Already some of our surgical techs have been asked to go to the units to monitor providers while they don and doff (put on and take off) Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

Instead of sending us home, why don’t they set up training for other possible roles? Why aren’t they taking inventory of skills? They should be asking the OR Nurses who have experience in the ER, ICU, or MedSurg Floor. Unfortunately, I have no such skills, but I am willing to learn. How about organizational and management skills? Isn’t that good for crisis management? I’m just wondering…