My Pandemic Experience at a Community Hospital

I’m writing this post as therapy. Facebook therapy. To explain, I see comments on Facebook about how this pandemic isn’t real, how the media is fake, and how we as a society bow down to fear. Let me share my pandemic experience.

This blog is not about how you should think or what is “right” because none of us know that. This is about my experience as a healthcare worker in a community hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. The news can be unreliable, and maybe we don’t know the truth.

So, let me be clear. This is my truth. This is my experience with coronavirus.

On the Frontline

I started to feel ill several weeks ago with fatigue so overwhelming I wondered if I could get out of bed on some days. Running ceased for about 10 days, and I went to sleep at 7 pm on some nights. I saw Occupational Health but wasn’t tested for COVID-19 because though I had shortness of breath and fatigue, I did not have a fever. The Occ Health personnel told me that the hospital cannot test everyone with partial symptoms because there aren’t enough tests. I was sent back to work on the oncology floor.

During my first ER shift, the ambulance brought in someone with a cardiac arrest, which is a possible presentation of COVID-19. The staff wore the full PPE and ultimately, the patient did not make it. This patient was never tested for COVID because we don’t test deceased people.

I have a decontamination procedure when I get home from work. During the week, I do not do laundry. Instead, I walk in the door and put everything I’m wearing into the washer. I then immediately take a shower and wash my hair. At the end of my work week, I wash the clothes on hot water with detergent.

The ER has COVID patients every day, and we have over a dozen people on ventilators in the ICU. I haven’t rotated to the ICU yet, so I can’t accurately speak to the experience of working in that environment. One colleague refers to it as, “COVID Country.”

PPE (Personal Protective Equipment)

I used the same N-95 mask over a span of 9 days in surgical cases because we don’t have enough supplies and because no clear cut information exists on the aerosolization of coronavirus after intubation. Am I standing next to a patient for six hours with coronavirus falling out of the air around me?

We currently recycle N-95 masks. Buckets sit in high flow areas as receptacles for used masks. The masks will then be shipped to a facility to be decontaminated and then reused. These are single use disposable masks which will now be used by multiple people over multiple days.

I wear goggles I ordered from Amazon and another pair sent to me from a friend because we don’t have enough eyewear at the hospital. My N-95 mask lives in a specimen bag clipped to my waist.

I use tiny alcohol pads to clean off my stethoscope because we are running out of wipes at the hospital. The ER places a few wipes in bags for people to use on their reusable PPE because the original plastic containers disappear.

We wear surgical masks over the N-95’s which management keeps a tight watch on. I do still change my outer mask in between OR cases and after seeing a possible COVID patient.

My Pandemic Experience

I really empathize with those who have lost their jobs and whose businesses have closed. I really do. Please let me know how I can help.

This hasn’t been easy for me as an American either. I’ve had my rights stripped away, too. I haven’t hugged another human in over a month. Days go by where I don’t see another soul.

The simple truth? If Baltimore hadn’t stayed at home, we would likely be out of most PPE at the hospital. The demand for PPE exponentially increased over a period of weeks. The hospital has had time to put contingency plans into place and because of the lockdown, healthcare workers are as safe as we can be.

Some don’t see the havoc COVID wreaks on people and on the healthcare system, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. And, there’s no way for you to know unless you are here in the middle of it. Reading about it, talking to someone in healthcare, or watching news clips cannot accurately convey the battlefields within our hospitals.

I am at risk due to asthma. However, I go to work because I need to and because this is where God put me. I try to do the best that I can though it’s terrifying to think about taking care of patients with a rapidly advancing virus without proper recommendations and equipment.

Entire professions of people endanger themselves on a daily basis. While there are many more considerations of the economy and the country as a whole (I’m in favor of phased-in re-openings), please remember the sacrifice of people in healthcare before you write your post and before you assume to know what it’s like in their shoes. You don’t.

I promise you that I’ll do my part in this pandemic experience.  This girl will take care of you to the best of my ability if you or your family members show up. I promise to advocate for you and to hold your hand if needed.  It will be my privilege.

Thanks for listening,

K.

Author of Ten Iron Principles, Contributor in The Power to Make a Difference