Bluewave! You are truly on the frontlines as an ICU Charge nurse, I used to be the same! It's actually been hard for me not to be at the bedside in all of this treating these people. I cared for a very sick young H1N1 patient back in the day who ended up dying. Doctors wouldn't go in the room. Nurses and respiratory only ended up in there. My daughter was an infant at the time and I certainly had more than a few turns to care for him. It was scary
I am in the northeast, in the NY/NJ metropolitan area. Right outside of bergen county which got hit very hard. Alot of people who live where I work travel into NY for work. We are saturated with cases.The arguement is on between whether this is droplet or airborne precautions, We ran out of Hepa filters so administration felt "eh, droplet is enough". This left our charge nurse crying. I just want to hug them all, but I can't! My unit is an intermediate unit and they may begin taking ICU cases and the nurses are worried about that. I kind of just want ot get back to the bedside and help them there, but we are shorthanded and my dad is having a heart attack when he heard nurses are being pulled from their non bedisde positions to fight this battle.
My thoughts are with you and your staff. I do hope everyone stays home while all the healthcare workers fight their battles. I have hear this will literally be like a warzone disaster operation.
PLease take care of yourself at this time. You have to. I know how hard it is to sleep, function eat, BUt you have to care for yourself, ok?! Stay strong and stay safe!
