I am a nurse working for a health care organization in the United States. My organization recently made headlines when patients tested positive for COVID-19. The folks who tested them were emergency room doctors and nurses who were being both diligent and inquisitive after they could not discover what was wrong.
Most of the hospitals around me now have patients who are testing positive for COVID-19. A younger doctor who worked in the emergency room now has the virus and is in the intensive care unit at his hospital. Many of my coworkers have had mild symptoms of something without being allowed to be tested. Most either took no days off work and wore masks or took some time off briefly while having active symptoms. I commonly hear people say that they do not think they have the virus because they do not have a fever.
STRUGGLES
Many health care workers I know (both in RC and not in RC) are struggling with finding a way to fulfill their duties as health care professionals while also getting accurate information based in science and keeping themselves safe, alive, and with enough peace of mind to actually work. It is a scary time.
At my agency we have been having meetings with our medical director and executive director. They have been speaking with us in an open forum format. (All meetings are supposed to be virtual.) About three weeks ago my dear friend and coworker said her boss was insisting that she and others come into the office for work and then attend a meeting later in the day. This friend earns a low hourly wage doing scheduling and administrative duties. I asked her to tell them no, but she did not feel empowered. I contacted her boss and said we are supposed to be working remotely if possible. Her boss was mad because she was home sick and did not want to deal with me while she was not working. I contacted my boss, and after discussion we decided together that my boss would intervene, which she did.
The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) has been at our hospital with our management and directors. They focused initially on the patients who are coming into the hospital and dying very rapidly. Those of us who work in home care have been doing our best to get information about personal protective equipment and protocols. Often new information comes in and things change within an hour or a few hours. This is happening worldwide, of course. There’s so much uncertainty everywhere, and health care workers here are not sure if we are being given all the accurate information.
I’ve noticed that a lot of my coworkers (and the general public) are blasé and numb. Others are panicked. As health care workers, many of us are trying to stay aware without feeling too much fear.
The hardest thing has been getting accurate information. My medical director has said a few times that what we know about the virus and its spread changes so quickly that the CDC doesn’t even have time to update their website.
When information changes, there is a lag. This causes a lot of upset about what we’re doing in terms of community transmission and asymptomatic transmission and in facilities that have virus-positive patients. My coworkers and I work in private homes, housing complexes, and community facilities that are also struggling to get the most up-to-date information. After some sessions, I concluded that we should not house our elders in complexes where there are so many of them together and the caregivers are paid a low wage and expected (or forced) to take care of too many people. This is not safe and not sustainable. Most of the workers in these complexes that I have met are women of color from outside of the United States.
It has been helpful to go against internalized sexism and speak out at work on behalf of a workforce that is predominantly female. I have done this repeatedly. I am sometimes ignored or treated harshly except by my immediate supervisor. However, the health care workers listen to me.