NUrsa Leslie McKarnie has been using a 16-hour shift, according to the night ritual of throwing all her clothes in the laundry as well as walking through the door to prevent her children from becoming infected. She has also become accustomed to treating covid patients, who often arrive in the emergency room due to shortness of breath and they struggle to describe their symptoms.
But despite the trauma and exhaustion over the past eight months, she was shocked when North Dakota Governor Doug Bergham said last week that healthcare workers who test positive for coronavirus but do not show symptoms can still work. The order, which is in line with CDC guidelines for overcoming staff shortages, will only treat asymptomatic health workers who test positive for working in covid units, and patients who already have the virus.
But many feel the idea puts themselves and their colleagues at risk. This is because the worst outbreak of North Dakota Covid-19 has occurred and is due to a shortage of healthcare staff.
“We’re concerned about someone’s death, honestly, because we couldn’t find them in time,” said McCarni, an emergency room nurse in Bismarck.
More than 9,400 North Dakots tested positive for the Covid-19 last week alone, according to data from the Covid Tracking Project. Residents in one in 12 North Dakota have been infected with the virus; Almost died in one. In early November, the North Dakota Department of Health reported that there are only 12 open ICU beds in the entire state.
McCarnie said Bergham’s order was against everything she was taught as a nurse.
“If hospital administrators force coward-positive staff to go to work, it will be very frightening. We are trained to do no harm, and patients are put at risk by telling covid-positive, asymptomatic nurses to return to work. It puts fellow employee members at risk. “
Within nine months of the epidemic, those obvious healthcare workers already face increasing risks. Frontline, a joint effort by The Guardian and Kaiser Health News, is investigating the deaths of 1,375 healthcare workers who have died in Kovid-19 since the onset of the epidemic. About a third Those healthcare workers were nurses.
McCarnie describes a long shift in the emergency room that started taking patients overnight because the other wards of the hospital did not have the capacity to admit them. Nurses take extra shifts to cover sick colleagues and take multiple critical patients at once.
It’s a scene that can be played in hospitals across the country, as the coronavirus spreads rampant. As of November 16, more than 11 million people in the United States had been infected with the virus, with health officials reporting 180,000 new infections in a single day. And the country will become another milestone: it will soon surpass a quarter of a million deaths from Covid-19.
Healthcare workers are overwhelmed and tired. According to a recent survey by National Nurses United, more than 70% of hospital nurses said they were afraid of contracting Covid-19 and 80% feared they would infect a family member. More than half said they were struggling with sleep deprivation and 62 reported being stressed and anxious. About 0% said they like N95 breathing, re-single-use, PPE.
Many healthcare workers have been laid off due to inaction at the state and federal levels. While Governor Bergham ordered that infected but asymptomatic nurses could report to work in covid units, North Dakota did not enforce any statewide mask order, despite expert guidance, as such a move could significantly reduce virus transmission.
Tessa Johnson is a registered nurse at Bismarck Nursing Home and president of the North Dakota Nurses Association, which issued a statement Wednesday condemning Burgham’s order that infected nurses continue to work.
He said the state could have done more to ensure patients were not infected in the first place. “We’ve asked and asked for a mask mandate, and it hasn’t happened,” he said Thursday.
On Friday night, Bergum made a face and issued a mask order, ordering individuals to cover their faces in indoor occupations in public settings and external public settings, where physical distance may be impossible.
“Our doctors and nurses who worked valiantly on the front lines need our help, and now they need it,” he said in a press statement.
Still, Johnson said there is a link between what healthcare workers in North Dakota’s health facilities are experiencing and how the general population recognizes the virus. And even before Bergam’s comment, some of his colleagues felt they had to choose to take all precautions and take up limited time. “A close friend of mine, a healthcare worker, also told me the other day, ‘I never have a way to get tested unless I’m very sick, because I don’t want to use my paid leave.’
The ER nurse, McCarni, said she has not had time to process her stress for the past several months. She focuses on staying healthy, preparing for what she expects will be tough winters and keeping her patients alive. “We’re ready to break our backs and work as hard as we can physically.” “But then telling us to come in as a potential infectious source is just spectacular.”
