The unit I work on at the hospital is normally designated for patients recovering from chest surgery and patients with acute medical respiratory issues. Right now we are a COVID unit;-every one of our patients is COVID-19 positive. As soon as they are no longer contagious, somewhere between day 10 to day 20 of their illness, they are moved to another floor where they continue their recovery. This month I have had patients who are business executives and others who are homeless. There are elderly patients from nursing homes, young adults, and middle aged people with severe symptoms. I have lost count of the number of deaths we have witnessed in the past year. Today another patient went from breathing room air to requiring 100% oxygen and a transfer to ICU within a few hours. Patients and their families often have not given thought ahead of time as to whether they want to be intubated and put on a ventilator. These conversations are difficult when someone is on the brink of respiratory failure. Forty percent of the staff on our unit have had COVID and some are still off work. We have had clusters of patients from various community outbreaks, the last being associated with one church's Christmas Eve services. What we are experiencing in our hospital is duplicated throughout our province, our country and around the world. I have never seen anything like it in my career.
The team members I work with are amazing, compassionate professionals who provide excellent care to their patients as well as positive support for each other. They have worked extra shifts, gone without vacations, juggled family responsibilities with children out of school. They have have had difficulty getting child care as their children are considered "high risk" for day care centres. They are applauded and also stigmatized in the community. Those who have more than one part time job have risked losing a position in one location because their other workplace is in an outbreak. This is not said to minimize the losses that many other people and businesses have suffered as a result of the pandemic. Many people have experienced economic, social and mental stress.
I remember family stories about the war years in the 1940s where goods were rationed, manufacturing demands changed, and men and women volunteered for military service. People in Europe endured even more restrictions to their freedom, and sacrifices were made for the greater good of all. My family did not experience the war personally and none of them served overseas, but they did their part in supporting those who did. We need to approach this pandemic like a war, as a caring community, as people who value our health care and social systems, not as people clamouring for individual rights. Thankfully, most people are compliant, but there is a vocal minority who want to return to "normal" sooner than later. The response of our government and health care leaders has not been perfect but we are learning as we go. We are very fortunate for the resources available in Canada.
Today is Bell Let's Talk Day where people are encouraged to be open about mental health issues. The hospital hosted a Zoom meeting at noon where various ways of promoting self-care and resilience were discussed. One suggestion (from a list of 40 items) was to "write a blog" and another was to "take a fresh air break". I walked through the snow to the top of the local sledding hill after work and watched the full Wolf Moon rise before snow streamers moved in and clouded the sky.
And I do feel better!
Stay well, be strong and resilient, let's talk and continue to look out for each other.
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