BISMARK, ND (AP) – Like many medical personnel around the world, Fargo Emergency Room nurse Adam Johnson will not be spared the horrific reality of a coronavirus epidemic. It follows him everywhere: at work, where people die every shift; In the grocery store, where people railway against the need for a mask of his city; And at home, where he struggles to sleep.
He is a U.S. citizen. In Bad Dakota has gotten long months including the current virus wave, getting comfort with fellow nurses during a brief break where they can beat insomnia or just change tips on frustration. But he and many other nurses fear that things that Governor Doug Bergam has approved are going to get tougher now. State troubled hospitals use infected but asymptomatic workers to treat Covid-19 patients.
“Every time you want to sit down and have a five-minute breakfast with one of your coworkers, he’ll question you,” said Johnston, president of the state’s Emergency Nurses Association. “You always think, ‘Am I 6 feet away from them?’ Am i safe I am not? ‘
Bergum said his decision could help hospitals in North Dakota, which are close to or close to capacity after a surge in cases started during the summer that have only worsened. But Johnston and many other nurses feel they resist imposing general protections to prevent the spread of the virus when it may be politically less tasty in a tight state.
There has been a big increase in COVID-19 cases from some of its Republican counterparts in other states, for months Bergam has taken a business-friendly approach, blaming individuals for slowing the virus on individuals rather than government orders to “protect both.” Life and livelihood. “It simply came to our notice then And ordered a statewide mask order and some restrictions on businesses and gatherings.
The hands-on approach does not work. After avoiding the outbreak of cases experienced by many other states at the onset of the epidemic, the virus has spread to North Dakota, which now regularly breaks daily record highs of cases and deaths.
Bergham’s move, which is approved under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reflects a shortage of medical workers in one of the country’s most difficult areas, said Dr. Harvard, an assistant professor at the School of Public Health. Said Thomas Tsai. He said options like increasing the number of cases in hospitals across the country are being weighed.
That is the case in South Dakota, which allows practice But where none of the major hospitals are currently using infected workers.
In places like New York, spring and early summer, medical workers across the country Were able to fly and volunteer, relieving hospitals. But Tsai said the virus is now so widespread that there is little hope of such relief in North Dakota.
The state’s major hospitals pressured the Bergam administration that they could infect but asymptomatic staff treat COVID-19 patients.
“We applaud the governor for another tool that can be used,” said Michael Lebue, head of Sanford Health Bismarck, who is developing a protocol to allow such employees to work in a dedicated COVID-19 unit after being found to be safe for employees. And patients. He said he expects hundreds of healthcare workers at his hospital to support the move after providing adequate security.
But Tessa Johnson, head of the North Dakota Nurses Association, said the group had surveyed hundreds of its members this week and that “we are not thrilled” by the decision.
“I know nurses who leave work every day and cry in their cars before they go home to see their babies.” “I don’t know what else we can take.”
Under the CDC guidelines, asymptomatic infected medical workers who intend to treat COVID-19 patients should take their own temperature before each shift and make sure they have no symptoms. Workers with mild symptoms are not allowed to treat patients.
The chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers, Dr. Marcus Plessia noted that hospitals must determine whether naming infected employees is a violation of HIPAA laws, although he said strict use of protective equipment in COVID should prevent units from spreading the infection among hospital staff, even if co-workers do not know. Who is infected.
But a change in the rule may also put internal and external pressure to work when infected employee members should receive a home reunion.
Many nurses say they have already reached a breaking point, and some are beginning to feel frustrated.
“We’re getting very thin and there’s no end to the vision,” said Kami Leah, a nurse at a hospital in Fargo, North Dakota’s largest city, who last month admitted she needed a mask. Yet it does not penalize for non-compliance. “We don’t know how long this will last, or if it’s on top of it or if it’s going to get worse.”
Grief is the hardest part, he said.
“There’s a lot of damage that’s hard to take,” he said. “Things get better thinking that families leave a loved one at the door, and sometimes it doesn’t.”
Health workers worry that even if asymptomatic infected comrades are confined to the COVID-19 unit, they can spread the disease to break rooms, cafeterias, lounges, and other shared areas.
Christine Royers, the hospital’s administrator and Fargo’s Republican state senator, said Bergham’s move would help hospitals care for patients. But he also admitted that it presents confusion for hospital staff. Roers, who is also a registered nurse, works more and more with patients because the staffing has become so thin.
He said, ‘I fully understand this delusion.’ “But I mean, what do you do when there’s no one left to take care of the patients?”
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Groves reported from Sioux Falls, S.D.
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