COVID19

5 letters and 2 numbers have changed absolutely everything in our personal and professional lives as nurses. Since the emergence of this catastrophic viral infection, the world has literally been reeling to find ways to fight, contain and eliminate it.

The difference with this virus is its unpredictability. It has forced us into isolation and stopped everything we took for granted in our everyday lives. Our freedom in healthcare to have direct contact with our patients has disappeared.

For now.

Our daily practice focus has shifted in an instant. Nursing requires us to always think of the patient first. For example, when we hear the call for help from a colleague, we drop everything to rush into the trauma room to lend a hand. Sometimes we manage to grab gloves and a mask on the way through the door. But sometimes we don’t.

Not now.

Now we MUST think first. We have to protect ourselves in order to be available to help others for as long as this pandemic grips us. Daily and occasionally hourly (!) instructions and guidance come from our leadership to shape how we spend our shift. At first it was a nuisance, now it is a ritual. In true nurse fashion, we process all of it and still manage to give the patients the care they need.

All of us must do our part. Staying home, disinfecting common surfaces daily and restricting our very social lives must occur to stop the spread. As a nurse, I must go a step further. Not breaching isolation even once, wearing protection from the time I enter my area to the time I leave it and re-learning the ways of the ER due to re-deployment. And of course, coming up with ingenious ways to strip before entering the house and getting to the shower before coming in contact with literally anything!

We will get through this.

For those NOT in essential services, this is the time to follow the rules and NOT challenge authority. Be safe, stay home and protect your loved ones.

For those of us in essential work environments, we must challenge authority to come up with innovative ways to provide more equipment and space for this soon to come rapid influx of patients. We must in some cases be away from those we love for extended periods of time and continue to do the work that we love despite the danger.

Stay strong, stay protected and support one another. Together we can help to keep some semblance of calm and order amongst ourselves, our departments and our patients while we do what we do best.

Care for others.