Let's talk about the the people that you've been serving and how they are
right now in terms of, you've been seeing some people actually do well.
Yes what comes to mind more readily than anything else is a husband-and-wife team that I
was able to take care of. I had the wife, the wife was assigned to
me first and just through conversation she was like you know my husband is here.
I'm thinking here, how did he get in the hospital like to visit? Because I know
that you know there are no visitors and she says no he's a patient, I'm like well
why aren't you rooming together? And just because of the dynamics of the floor
they were not able to be housed together and so we kind of got into our advocacy
mode like us nurses do, and we were able to- took about a half a day but we were
able to get them to be able to room in the same room, which is great because
even though you have the symptoms and you know the stress of having COVID it
was just so nice that they were able to heal together. The bright side is, is that
they went home, they went home after about three days they were able to go home.
And that's because there- they tested negative?
Yes. what they do is they
will- when you test positive then after their treatment regimen or whatever they
will test you again and they ended up testing negative and was able
to be discharged. Now they would have to quarantine when they get home
so they'll quarantine for the 14 days, they have 18 year-old son so they sent
him you know to live with to stay with a relative and they were able to go home.
So it was a happy time.
And you're able to help, you and the rest of the nursing
staff helped determine who is able to go home. Tell us how you guys
communicate about those kinds of things because you're on different shifts.
Yea it's a- team effort. Of course the doctors run the- team so to speak, they run
the show but we're real big in advocacy, keeping up with the numbers, working
with the social workers and any other type of outreach committee since they're at
the hospital because what we're finding is, I think what- what even I forgot where
people are forgetting is that because you can't be out. So a lot of the
homeless personnels are in shelters and then once they come if they test
positive and they come into the hospital those shelter beds are not held for them.
So sometimes it's hard for them to be discharged back to where they came from.
So social work, I have to say is very very busy as well, it really- this
this pandemic really takes all hands on deck. So you know once we see a
patient we're like hey, you know they're there temperatures have been okay for
the past couple of days you know they're no longer requiring oxygen, they're room
air now, they're up walking around, they're doing better, you know what can
we do to get them out of here? And by me working night shift I'm not privileged
to have a social worker because they don't work 24 hours but we passed that
on, as I passed the baton so to speak, to the day shift nurse and be like
look it's this, this, and this and our report let's see first thing with the
physicians rounds first thing we want to mention is when can this patient go home.
Okay.
Yeah, we want to get them out of there because you can come to the hospital and get sick.
I've heard that. The last thing I want to ask you about is, who takes care of you and
the other nurses in terms of- this is this is tough work mentally, emotionally- talk about that a little.
I'm you know, I'm super proud to say that there have been a lot of processes put
into place for the for the health care providers. Here with the the agency that
I'm here with and our own ballrooms, they have- kinda like them an employee
health type set up where we have nurse practitioners and we have physician's
assistants that are just here for us. If you become symptomatic you know there is
someone here to treat you. If you- could get a common cold or anything can
befall you because we're humans and so they're there- they're set up. We also
have a counseling service that has been made available to us, there's just those
times that you need to deescalate, you may need to talk. We have been encouraged,
strongly encouraged through email, through text messages, that if you need
to talk to someone come down, here's the number, here's how you can reach that
person. If you're not feeling, well take time. When we first came it was very
widely known that the requirement was that we work 21 days and then we get two
days off but since then you know administration has been very responsive
so now you're able- if you want to work 14 days and take one day off you can,
that's the option I'm choosing. So my first day off will be on Sunday.
And you're looking forward to it I know.
I am, I am, I am looking forward to it but I
have to say that you know I'm Georgia strong, I'm Georgia strong so- and we
stick together there's so much camaraderie here. I mean just the spirit
and the resiliency of the nurses kind of rubs off, we kind of rub off on each other.
I'm happy to report that- so we are being taken care of and we do have numbers,
there are hotline numbers- you know directly to administration, clinical
leaders that we can call, should any needs arise.
Okay. Well I'm glad about that, I'm glad
you're doing okay. Thank you for these regular updates and take care of yourself.
I will.
As you take care of other people and as I said before you're one of our heroes, we
appreciate you, and I know you've got a long night ahead, so good luck with that.
We'll talk again soon, okay?
Thanks for having me.
Thank you.