“Nurse Sarah” carries the weight of the world. And she dances to malt shop oldies while she’s balancing it. I never told her that she’s my hero, but she is.
As a matter of fact nurses are my heroes in general. Some people think of soldiers, police, astronauts and rap stars as heroes and many of them are but at this point in our history, I’m choosing nurses.
Unfortunately, I had the opportunity to spend quality time with these heroes when my mom passed away just before the pandemic struck. They were the ones down in the trenches at her senior living facility checking on her, cleaning her, talking gently to her, adjusting her bedding, taking her temperature and listening to her vital signs.
Nowadays, for some seniors, these unlikely heroes are the only human contact they get. And when a nurse is fully suited up to protect against COVID-19, the contact becomes obscure and opaque.
Nurse Sarah knows what it’s like. She works in a senior housing and support facility on the Front Range. What’s it like?
“Picture it if you were stuck in your room … watching the world go by and there really isn’t a whole lot of world to watch outside anyhow. They’re stuck in their rooms. They have their TVs and telephones and that’s basically their connection to the outside world.”
That and visits from nurses, Certified Nurses Assistants and kitchen staff who go in and try to interact with them as much as possible. Before Sarah goes into a room she dons a gown, gloves, booties, an N-95 mask, a surgical mask over that, and then goggles and a face shield.
“It’s hot under all that equipment, and mentally exhausting,” she told me.
This outfit makes it harder for Nurse Sarah to provide compassionate service, but she does the best she can under the circumstances. She told me that she wears a name tag and to humanize things she will often put on “malt shop oldies” music and dance for her clients while she does the medical assessments. Heroic.
Sure, she makes it sound fun, but timing is everything. She has to visit up to 30 people during her 12- or 13-hour shift and each time has to switch her gown and gloves and wipe down her face shield. She spends hours a day shuffling gear. She has to time her visits to coincide with the need to provide medications when they should be administered.
Sarah told me that she has nurse friends who have worked with garbage bags instead of gowns and that she’s thankful for a plentiful supply of personal protective equipment.
Senior housing has been especially hard hit by the pandemic and nurses like Sarah were surprised that they ended up pretty close to the front lines.
I interviewed an Intensive Care Unit Nurse from UCHealth Longs Peak Hospital. He said that ICU patients require a lot of care while they are in the room. He explained that COVID-19 ICU patients are very sick. He said that there have been a wide variety of patients of every age range landing in his hospital. Some without preexisting conditions.
A ventilator is a machine that helps people to breathe. A tube goes down your throat. It helps push air into the lungs and helps support the lungs in order to assist with oxygen exchange. The most severely ill patients in the ICU get this treatment and a nurse is running the show.
What is it like?
“After sedation through IV we try to keep them calm and relaxed. Hopefully not remembering what’s happening. Let those machines do what they do,” he said.
The ICU nurse told me that the highlight of his day is when he can ease anxiety dealing with patients and families. He lets them know that they will get the best care possible.
Nurse Sarah says she keeps going because, “I love people. I love my fellow humans. I want to help people. What greater gift could you be given to have someone trust you enough to allow themselves to be vulnerable around you and let you help heal them? That’s such a beautiful connection. I just feel like it’s love. I get to give people love all day long. I think that’s what we all need.”
Heroes.
Steve Skinner encourages everyone to take COVID-19 seriously. Reach him at nigel@sopris.net.
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