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It is early afternoon, one day after the introduction of the curfew. It is difficult to arrange a place for the interview because everything is closed. For want of a better one, we sat on a bench in a shopping center. People come and go, shopping. Everybody has a mask. It also depends on us. Gabi may not even show up anymore, and even the pink unicorn mask is more comfortable than the protective clothing required in the intensive care unit. (Our interviewee works in a hospital in Budapest as an intensive care unit. He did not want us to reveal his identity, so we changed his name).
Beyond the red line
Today, he routinely dons protective clothing, if nothing else, the spring period was good for that. Then he was just sick, he had time to learn about the situation, he was able to gain experience. In many ways, it was different to enter with the patients, that is, to cross the red line from which you cannot leave.
We were scared in the spring. We were afraid of the virus because we didn’t know anything about it … but now it is different. Now the difficult thing is that we have no idea how long it will last and when it will end. We only see patients coming.
Gabi had been infected with a coronavirus for a month and a half. She had symptoms of a mild cold, she underwent a test when suddenly she no longer felt the flavors. He is almost certain that he did not get it in the hospital, but somewhere on the street, in the subway, but it may also be that the boy took him home. All protective equipment is provided at the hospital. The rule is that one person’s clothing is monitored and supervised by two others, so there will definitely be no mistakes.
We are looking at each other. You can’t go without it.
If they dress up and cross the red line, they won’t be able to drink a glass of water for hours. If the shift starts at seven o’clock, no one will leave at noon. It doesn’t even peek inside, the work is continuous, there are no stops. When they go out they take off their protective clothing and sit down, they are amazed at how many hours it is.
That’s what the system has
Turning, many tasks is basically not a problem, although it is not the usual pace. In peacetime, the intensive care unit operates at about 90 percent capacity in the hospital. These are mostly plannable cases, usually with time for each task. Now as many additional beds, machines and equipment as possible could be installed, but beyond a point it is no longer possible to push another bed. It is no longer possible to expand the capacity of the Gabiék Hospital, which is the infrastructure. And there just aren’t enough people.
Typically, an intensive care nurse can care for two patients professionally and to an appropriate standard. Gabi now has four to five patients per head.
Care means, on the one hand, the administration of medications, the handling of machines and the constant monitoring of the patient and, on the other hand, nursing. Changing diapers, bathing, and moving the patient is also an important task to keep the recovery period as short as possible. Not to mention, you can’t just send the patient home like this, as they may still not be able to eat on their own or may need physical therapy to recover. There’s basically no time for that today, Gabi says.
We no longer nurture ourselves, we only seek lives.
And is it psychologically burdensome? On the one hand, of course, and on the other hand, a nurse who works in an intensive care unit has already experienced a lot, she is much better equipped than her colleagues who have been temporarily referred to the Covid wards or the care unit intensive. They usually help in the work of the intensive care unit, that is, they work outside the red line, preparing medicines and tools. Everyone tries to do their best and everyone learns to work very quickly, but you also need to pay extra attention to make sure everything works as well.
What you can’t cope with
It is not possible to get used to the fact that now everything is unpredictable compared to the time of peace. Some people get the infection, others get over it without problems. Regardless, once complicated, the complications can often be worse than the infection itself. Gabira still has a regular thirst to breathe, her pulse is skyrocketing, even though she leads a healthier than average lifestyle.
Some have lungs that will be clear after five days and can go home. Another lies for two months, and Covid just eats the lungs. The forty-year-old can’t take it, but the ninety-year-old is on the mend. Many times we have no idea who survives or who does not, he says.
Increasingly, those who are still with them when they connect to a fan call home to say goodbye. Because they don’t know what will happen.
Even the most martial nurses are not ready for this. And when they think about what may happen, their concern does not go away. The real impact is likely not to hit the intensive classes. There are simply as many patients as there are places available, that is, if one patient leaves, is cured or his organization abandons the fight, only then another can take his place.
The really high pressure will be in the Covid rooms and the SBO, that is, the emergency room, where patients will arrive in the coming weeks. And they are really going to spill, it shows in the infected data. At a high average, one in five infected conditions becomes severe and approximately 4,000 infected people are registered daily. This could mean 800 new hospital patients per day in the next few days. If they spend an average of ten days in the hospital, 8,000 patients at a time.
In a list of tens, where the tens is total chaos, we can now be above level eight
Gabi says. In other hospitals, there may be more space and there may be more space available. All safe. But there are very few people. That should be double.
Once this is over
By comparison, next year there may not be half of them. This is because many people do not want or do not want to sign new employment contracts. Gabi still does not know how she will decide, in any case two things are certain: one is that they would be reluctant to sign a contract that prohibits taking a second job and that can then be unilaterally modified by the employer under the heading of transfer. Not to mention, you don’t even know exactly who may decide to transfer a particular worker – will it be a hospital or ministerial competition?
The other thing that is certain is that it is about the future. Now even those who already know that they are not asking for all of this are going nowhere. Because no matter how they decide where the nurses go to work, they almost certainly won’t take a step until they’ve cared for their last covid patient.
(Cover Image: Our Image Illustration! Photo: John Moore / Getty Images Hungary)
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