I think most would agree with me when I say that nobody could have anticipated how the year 2020 would unfold. I think front-line nurses would agree even more that this year has been one of the most challenging of their entire careers. Nursing is an incredibly difficult profession to get into, and it’s an even harder one to remain in. In this profession, it can sometimes feel like we are constantly swimming against a strong current that is attempting to whisk us off of our feet and out to sea. The expectations are immensely high when dealing with people’s lives and there is no room for failure. The battles in nursing are inclusive of understaffing, ridiculously high workloads, long 12-hour shifts, aggressive or violent patients and complete unpredictable chaos. There are no two shifts that are the same. Nurses are constantly expected to adjust their day and to adapt to rapidly changing situations all while maintaining an open stream of communication within the interdisciplinary team and with their patients. Nurses are in the awkward position of being responsible for holding up our health care system yet they do not receive the credit nor the appreciation that they deserve. The system lets nurses down daily through lack of support and by treating them as disposable. My point is, nursing is arguably one of the most difficult professions with 94% of Canadian nurses experiencing burnout (CFNU, 2022), but add COVID-19 on top of that and we have ourselves a complete disaster.
In May 2020, the initial steps in British Columbia were to halt all non-essential surgeries which resulted in many surgical nurses having to relocate to other units. On my unit, this was pretty nice at first because we were appropriately staffed for the first time ever. We had 3 patients per nurse instead of 4 or 5 on day shifts and we had 4 patients instead of 5 or 6 on night shifts. On top of this, family were not allowed to enter the hospital unless they were visiting someone who was dying or had a major change in health status. As a result, we were incredibly content because we were able to spend more time at the bedside with our patients and we were able to perform our job to our standards without running around frantically trying to complete a long list of never-ending tasks. According to one of our charge nurses, less patients were falling out of bed, less errors were made by nursing staff and patients were suffering from less complications. She attributed this to being well-staffed. We also had less sick calls and nurses appeared to be all around less stressed.
The public were cheering for the health care workers too and I could hear the clamouring of pots and pans and I could see the loud bursts of colour from the many fireworks erupting in the sky. It felt like we were being seen for the first time. It felt like we were finally being appreciated for all of our hard work. However, the cheers eventually faded away and the conditions of the hospital worsened for many.
The news showcased stories of people stealing protective equipment. Suddenly, when I showed up for work there were no masks, no face shields, no gowns and no hand sanitizer. So we were expected to work in the front line during COVID with no protective equipment? I read stories of nurses in the United States dressed in garbage bags in an attempt to protect themselves due to a shortage of protective equipment (Glasser, 2020). The hand sanitizer on our units quickly ran out and became liquid spirits. Most of the alcohol pumps were empty, but the ones that were not had a rancid smelling alcoholic sanitizer in them. Our masks were hidden away because of people entering the hospital and stealing our equipment. The disinfectant wipes were locked to the walls in their containers so that nobody could displace them. N95 masks which were once freely displayed in our clean supply rooms were hidden away in manager’s offices. We would need to call a special phone number and answer a series of questions before someone would personally bring us one and at the end of the day we would need to “recycle” them. If we needed safety goggles or face shields, we would have to ask as well.
In July, we started cutting back on staff once more since non-essential surgeries were commencing again and staff were expected to return to their home units to meet these demands. Families were as anxious as ever before and were calling us sometimes 3 to 5 times per day to check on their loved ones. We had no system set up to receive these concerned demands and we were constantly falling short. I remember continually reassuring family that we were doing everything that we could but that we were not responsible for the visitation restrictions put in place. Most of them were respectful and understood that this was beyond our control but many of them were aggressive and rude over the phone. Eventually, the hospitals were accepting visitors. For my unit, we were accepting one visitor per patient between 3 pm and 5 pm. Suddenly, our job description expanded and we were acting as security as well. Instead of hiring someone to enforce COVID visitation restrictions, this landed on the nursing staff, as usual. We were now responsible for forcing people to respect visiting hours, making sure they signed in, constantly reminding and educating visitors on wearing their masks and screening them for symptoms.
Like many of my coworkers, I was receiving phone calls from COVID testing sites requesting that I pick up some shifts. I never expected to gladly be willing to take COVID shifts since I felt as though I absolutely could not spend one more day in the hospital. To my pleasant surprise, the COVID testing sites were well-staffed, emotionally uplifting, not physically strenuous, more supportive and the ability to work outside was delightful. I truly commend the COVID testing sites in Vancouver for being an absolute treat to work at. They warranted such a positive environment for workers that many inpatient staff left the hospital completely to commit to full-time at these testing sites leaving many hospital units even more short-staffed.
It didn’t take long for my unit to start seeing an increase in sick calls and errors. It was as if we had learned nothing from this. The added weight of a pandemic on top of an already failing health care system was too much of a burden. COVID-19 exemplified the areas of practice which were problematic and which needed to be augmented and repaired. Instead, it felt as though the government were taking the hardworking health care staff for granted and treating them as though they were disposable. Using the nursing staff as putty and desperately trying to fill the obvious and worsening cracks in the walls. The whole world looks on as the health care staff are breaking their backs to bare the weight of this broken system and still, it feels as if we have learned nothing. It is absolutely no wonder that so many nurses leave this profession when we are just as expendable as a child’s sad and abused play toy.
With a vaccine on the horizon and its anticipated release at the beginning of 2021, it appears that this nightmare may finally be coming to an end. I would like to give all of my fellow health care workers out there an extra large shoutout. That includes, nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists, kitchen workers, housekeeping staff, hospital security, allied health staff, essential workers and everyone else who fought on the front-lines during this pandemic. If it were up to me, I would give you all one million dollars and unlimited free coffee. If COVID-19 has taught me anything, it has been that working as a nurse means that I am underappreciated, undervalued and, most importantly, taken for granted.
References:
Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions. (2022, February 2nd). Governments need to act now: nurses are hanging on by a thread. https://nursesunions.ca/governments-need-to-act- now-nurses-are-hanging-on-by-a-thread/
Glasser, S. B. (2020, April 9th). How did the U.S. end up with nurses wearing garbage bags? The new yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps- washington/the-coronavirus-and-how-the-united-states-ended-up-with-nurses-wearing- garbage-bags