At a North Dakota hospital, nurses are being forced to examine malignant coronavirus patients with only surgical masks. And across the state, a number of nurses are working in multiple overnight shifts in a row, and North Dakota is afraid of a brawl that is facing a dangerous shortage of beds from rapid coronavirus spikes.
On Monday, state officials announced a potentially counter-productive band-aid to combat the tide of recruitment of cases that have largely robbed the rural hospital system: Kovid-19 positive nurses and other health care workers could come to work.
Now, the nurse is as crazy as hell.
“Nurses are very trustworthy in our community, and if we are saying that we can go back to work after a positive test – how can we expect people to take this epidemic seriously?” Tessa Johnson, president of the North Dakota Nurses Association, told the Daily Beast.
“I’ve heard a lot of people say they’re at their breaking point. I think we will lose nurses from this. It affects everyone differently, ”he added.
But while many North Dakota nurses have told the Daily Beast they are afraid of the virus, they insist they can still show their increasingly dangerous jobs because “this is what nurses do.”
“Nurses don’t seem safe. They don’t feel like they have enough PPE. And everyone is concerned about short staff and they are not supported by the state leadership, ”said Johnson, who is also the executive director of the senior long-term care facility. “But they will continue to go to work and put themselves at risk because the nurse does what she does, even if she gets stuck with a rope.”
By Monday, North Dakota medical professionals may continue to work in COVID-19 units in hospitals and nursing homes with asymptomatic COVID-19 cases. It is one of several steps taken by hospitals and officials as part of their “growth plans” to curb the virus, which has moved the entire state into the “high-risk” category.
“This only applies to covid-positive healthcare workers who have no symptoms and are allowed to operate covid units around patients who already have the virus,” North Dakota Gov. Doug Bergham said Monday.
The move, Bergam insisted, aligns with the CDC guidelines that allow asymptomatic medical personnel to work during acute staff shortages.
This shift also occurs as elected leaders in North Dakota, according to a survey The lowest rate of residents using facial ingots in the countryFrequent refusal to establish a mask mandate or any other forceful COVID-19 mitigation plan.
A North Dakota nurse who wished to remain anonymous for fear of occupational retaliation said the state’s unprecedented move to treat patients with the virus was “short-sighted and at worst harmful.”
“We need state officials to take decisive, tough decisions to fight the virus, otherwise our hospital system will collapse completely,” the nurse said, adding that she has many colleagues and friends who have the virus. . “Allowing health care workers with this disease to treat patients with the same disease will not help anything. It just makes the problem worse. “
Another nurse who works at Bismarck told the Daily Beast that she did not know she was willing to risk herself and her family for a state that did not seem to be “going after her anymore.”
Johnson pointed out that covid-positive nurses could not isolate the virus from patients and could spread the deadly virus to their peers in “bathrooms and dining rooms and break rooms and elevators.”
He said it was not only “unrealistic” to have a “highly contagious” virus in hospital wings, but that the new move was “just to make matters worse” as it would increase the nurse’s stress and prevent her from getting rest. In hospital areas “where they feel safe.”
As a center for coronavirus outbreaks in the Midwest, North and South Dakota currently have the worst per capita mortality rates in the country. And while the coronavirus is growing at an uncontrolled rate in dozens of states across the country, North Dakota tops the daily average for new cases, hospital admissions and deaths, the state says.
The North Dakota Department of Health reported 1,801 new cases in the state on Thursday, bringing the figure to about 59,173, with a positivity rate of about 18.7 percent. Last week, there were 171 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people in the state, the highest per capita rate in the country, according to the CDC.
Officials also said Thursday that the virus had killed 11 people, bringing the state’s death toll to 697. The dead include David Andhall, a North Dakota Republican legislative candidate who died in October, but nevertheless ended up winning his seat.
Health experts 762,062 Americans are concerned about the state’s route, especially in neighboring states.
An expert in infectious diseases, senior scholar Dr. Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Amesh Adalaja believes the North Dakota virus route officially puts him in “crisis.”
“The state doesn’t have a lot of medical resources, so there’s a low threshold for getting frustrated if something goes wrong,” Adalja told the Daily Beast, adding that the state’s increase is a “lesson for what happens when you don’t don”. T.
On Wednesday, the health department revealed that some residents have tested positive for COVID-19 several times, and officials said they have begun an investigation to determine if that is the case, in fact, refraction.
“Our cases are of people who have tested positive twice, developed symptoms a second time, with most of the positive results lasting more than 90 days,” a health department spokesman said. Forum.
Adalaja, however, insists North Dakota’s decision to allow health care workers to continue working with “acute infections” is a “sign of the times” rather than a dangerous decision that could lead to re-infection.
“Re-infection is something that is very rare. These medical personnel are serious patients who work with already infected patients, ”Adalaja said. “That being said, it will get worse in North Dakota before it gets better.”
Each county in the state of Bergam has moved to a “high risk” level, indicated by the color orange. The state, one step below the shut-down steps, limits all bars and event venues to 25 percent capacity. On Monday, Bergham outlined several other initiatives to prevent the crisis, including the recruitment of EMTs and paramedics to run test sites.
“There is a lot of pressure on our hospitals now,” Bergham added. “We can see the next two, three weeks, and we know we have serious setbacks.”
Sanford Health, one of the largest health care systems in the state, also announced Thursday that it would send hospital patients to a nearby nursing home in Fargo to recover in an attempt to evacuate hospital space. According to Forum, The nursing home is opening a wing that will provide 24 extra beds for the hospital system that is already at “very high capacity”.
The North Dakota Nurses Association has reprimanded the state leadership for allowing COVID-positive medical workers to continue working. In a statement Wednesday night, they said staying on the job should be the choice of health care workers, while their employer should be covid-positive instead.
“If a nurse believes they are not fit enough to provide safe patient care and chooses not to work in these circumstances, employers should not retaliate against the nurse for making this decision,” the statement said. The state should suppress COVID. 19 mitigation guidelines such as mask-wear and making social distance mandatory.
The North Dakota Emergency Nurses Association also issued a statement Wednesday night opposing the new policy, urging legislators to establish a statewide mask order and other CDC mitigation guidelines before resorting to a “crisis strategy.”
Johnson Said nurses are already putting themselves in line for their patients every day.
“They’re probably positive health care workers who haven’t been tested,” Jones said. “Everyone is risking their lives for the virus. We are preparing for a very dark week to eight weeks until there is a drastic change. “
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