The Struggles of Covid-19 Nurses

It has been chaotic for the past few months since the emergence of Covid-19 disease. It rapidly spread from country to country, infecting individuals and damaging human lives causing enormous loss not just to specific countries but to a worldwide population making it a one deadly Pandemic. Despite the efforts made by the government to implement measures here in the Philippines, there is still a continuous rise in the number of cases everyday. While a number of recoveries increases, the mortality also increases. And with this; the healthcare workers are the ones carrying the heaviest burden, especially the nurses who provides bedside care to admitted patients. 

Photo credits: Jap Bestoyong

Nowadays, we are considered as the essential workers, the front-liners, the modern-day heroes, but only few understand our day-to-day struggles. We get applause and praises but also get discriminated, treated as disease “carriers”. Some see us as mercenaries, "paid" to do our job and do not deserve the praises. If only they could walk on our shoes then maybe they will understand the plight we are in, the challenges and struggles where our deep sentiments are coming from. In light of it, here are some, if not all, the hardships we face as nurses fighting this pandemic. 

Donning and Doffing of PPE

You may see us with our fancy PPEs, smiling selfies and wacky group pictures in social media posts, but you wont see the challenges as we work inside the Covid units. It is twice, even thrice the hardship on doing procedures, providing nursing care, manipulating machines while wearing 3 layers of PPE. It can make you sweat profusely and exhausted after a 12-hr shift. 

People might think we are cute like Teletubbies, legendary like astronauts going to the moon, fearless like Money-heist robbers, hip like Heisenberg, but believe me, it is like we are Lucifer burning in hell wearing them. Drenched in sweat, prone to dehydration, heatstroke and oxygen desaturation. Our sights get blurry, breathing becomes heavy, heads get dizzy as we wear all those layers of masks, googles, face-shield, suits and booties.

Scarcity of Resources

Nowadays, the price of PPE’s and other medical essentials is at its peak. And the most common commodity, the most precious N95 mask is being limited. We do not have a fit testing for the masks and so everyone wears the same size of it which basically defeats its purpose (being not well fitted for each nurse to use). 

We were instructed to only have one for the entire week and so we have to make it last for 3-4 duties. We usually put on a surgical mask on top of our N95 mask to make its life longer and as advised by our superiors. As what they said, We are still fortunate to have proper PPEs as others has already lacked of it or have to improvise theirs. So we are thankful for the kind donations of PPE especially suits and masks. 

Skin Dryness and Irritations

When you are a nurse, you live with dry chapped skin as you do frequent hand washing. But being assigned at Covid Unit, there is more frequent hand hygiene and sanitizing with all those harsh disinfectants and chemicals that makes our hands even drier to the point of becoming red, raw and cracking. 

Photo credits: Jap Bestoyong

Also, wearing PPE for a long time, especially the N95 mask, we have to endure the pressure pain on the bridge of our noses, back of our ears, the line marks on our faces, irritations, allergies and worse the acne breakouts despite meticulous skin care. As for my salary, I don’t think it can cover the cost of my derma treatments after this pandemic, so I think being a nurse right now is not really worth it. 

Being Exposed and Tested

We care for all classifications of patients; suspect, probable and confirmed positives. The fear is there every time we open their doors and enter their rooms despite wearing our layered PPE. We get tested after our 2-week duty exposure and have to endure the burning pain of having our nose and mouth swabbed.

It hurts as hell and if only it is not necessary, i really wont do it. Being exposed is no easy, even if having the slightest symptom makes you paranoid and waiting for your test result to come back is another mental torture. And when we get cleared, we go out working and risking to expose ourselves again. This cycle continues as we thrive and keep up with the demands of our jobs. Until we get to the most rewarding part, (drum rolls) being infected. 

Being infected 

Of all the struggles we have to make at all of these, being tested positive and sick is the worse. We are already mourning for our fallen brothers and sisters that has succumbed for this pandemic and we don’t want to be part of the statistics. Unfortunately, it is inevitable as some of us has already been exposed and got the virus in our system.

 

This is what we get for risking our own health and sacrificing even our own lives for the sake of caring for our patients. Some says that we are paid to do this job, yes but a mere 25% increase of our salary as hazard pay wont even cover the risk of putting our lives on the line, the anxiety we caused to our loved ones, or the 1 million pesos if ever we die.

Pressure from Hospital Administrators

This pandemic also brought its debilitating effects on the hospital institutions. They had to make necessary adjustments with the nursing operations to cover for losses and adapt to this changing times. Of all of these, we as the workforce are the end recipient of those new policies. 

Lately, we adapt a 12-hours duty and a rule of “No Work, No Pay Policy”. so while everyone stay/work at home we are mandated to work and care for Covid patients. No vacation/off/leave requests allowed at this time. There are some benefits though but still, it feels like we are being forced to. 

Being Away from Home

Caring for the infected ones, we cannot risk coming home to our loved ones. We cannot stay at the same house for fear of being a carrier, or being infected and might spread the virus to them. So even though we miss our families and the comfort of being home, we have to stay at hospital’s provided rooms and accommodation. 

It is like college-days once again; bunk-beds, communal bathrooms, cramped rooms, etc. For some tough who still chose to go home, there’s the struggles of transportation during this community quarantine situation and the chance of being discriminated in their respective communities. 

Getting "Burnout"

Being the nurses catering to Covid-19 infected patients has its many downsides; worrying for your own health, longer duty hours, caring for the ill-most patients, updating families, attending codes and intubations, doing post-mortem care, there is so much to bear and it is taking a tool on us.

Covid-19, being an infectious disease with high mortality rate, seeing a black bag almost everyday is not a wonder anymore. There is a lot of suffering right now and we cant unsee it, it is draining us and we are breaking down. 

People are dying, if not for corona virus then for not being treated promptly and fairly because or being a PUI (Person under Investigation)  or a suspected patient. This has all been affecting us and there’s nothing we can do. Patients and healthcare workers suffer much as the same. 

To Resign or Continue Working

This is the million dollar question, you really can’t blame us for contemplating on resigning. Some actually did already and still respect to them whatever their reasons are. It is okay to rest for you and your family’s well-being. With all these chaos going around, it’s not really fun to be a nurse right now. But how come we are still working and not yet resigning? It is because being compassionate and caring is embedded in our core even at this trying times. When despite all struggles, we find comfort for knowing that we are able to help patients recover, we have provided care and comfort for dying patients, and we are able to help in beating this worldwide pandemic. 

 

So this sums up our eperience as a Covid-19 nurses. It may slightly differ from other institutions but it mostly covers all. This is not a rant in any way but to show a clear picture of Nursing at the time of Covid-19. The world is adapting to the new normal, so these challenges might be permanently become part of our job as nurses. 

To my fellow nurses who are continuing to fight, salute to all of you who are still standing high and waving the heroes banner. These difficult times will end for sure, we don’t know yet but I want to remember these struggles as defining moments of our career. That we may look back on in the future and be proud as we retell the stories of how we survived and helped beat the disease. 

For all those people who are with us in this fight, along with the other members of the healthcare team, we are so much grateful for all your support. For the PPEs, meals, vitamins, goodies and kind words of encouragement, it means a lot to all us. 
To everyone who are doing their part, staying home, performing frequent hand hygiene, practicing social distancing, wearing masks and observing precautions in public areas, you are heroes as well for saving lives. 

May we all get through this together and may..

“We Heal As One”.