We are in trouble!
There is no other way to put that. We are at a tipping point that this country and our medical system have NEVER faced before.
We have glimpsed this gateway before…..a couple of months of overtime, chronic short staffing and staffing cuts that create unfillable holes, patients spending hours or days in the Emergency Room waiting for a bed, nurses and providers spent to their last step, shortages of supplies and medications…..We saw moments of this before Covid.
We have now walked through thE gateway and are living that reality.
What the average person sees:
| Staffing Shortages | Not Enough Beds | Limited Time with Provider/Staff | Supply Shortages |
| staff apologizing for late medicines, dietary mistakes, late medications, missed hygiene, phone calls and call lights that go off without answer | patients waiting in the waiting room or emergency room, being moved to a different unit or a different room, being discharged early for patient census, being sent home and asked to follow up with your provider instead of admitted | Nursing only at your bedside for medication administration and assessment, having multiple persons answer your calls, doctor visits later in the day, staffing apologizing for limited access, missing your respiratory treatment | Being told we are out of a product, a medication, and multiple other supplies |
What you do not see:
| Staffing Shortage | Not Enough Beds | Limited Time with Provider/Staff | Supply Shortages |
| The unit manager working the floor for the 4th shift straight, patient care coordinators as nurses caring for patients, multiple staff from travel agencies to fill staffing holes, staff working 1-2 extra 12-hour shifts a week, 7 patients to 1 nurse staffing ratio, missed breaks-meals, staff working in multiple departments to help out. Staff working while their own health declines. | Providers and nursing caring for high number of patients so that patients can stay in their community, admin meeting to find ways to care for more patients, being asked to work in other departments to ease their burden, sending patients home as soon as they are able to open another bed. | Staff that haven’t had time to eat-use the bathroom or chart staying late, Providers admitting/discharging patients, assessing patients, ordering medications and treatments, charting assessments and mandated documentation, talking with families, researching treatment options, calling other specialists, CALLING hospital after hospital trying to transfer a critical patient. Nurses putting on and taking off gowns/masks/gloves to go into each room, answering call lights, giving medications at prescribed times, bathing patients, bringing food and feeding patients, charting assessments, admitting and discharging patients, conferencing with providers, calling families, giving oxygen, performing cpr, catching babies, holding hands, and doing their best to care for their patients | The anxiety, tears, frustration, prayers and anger when a patient needs a medication, supplies, treatments, and resources that ARE NOT available. |
I was that patient. It was painful to hear my coworkers struggle to care for patients, knowing I had increased their burden. I knew first-hand what was going on outside my door. The sounds of hurried feet, the deep breaths before entering a room, the sadness of loss, the desire for your shift to end and, your burden to be taken by the next shift.
Let’s talk a minute about anxiety, frustration, and anger…let’s talk about the tears and the near panic. The fear that we are not enough, can not do enough, do not have enough to take care of our patients. The absolute fatigue and mental exhaustion of caring for patients in an environment that isn’t enough. The choices that must be made to give the most critical patients your all and, hope that you have something left for everyone else.
Let’s talk about the sleeplessness of waking up thinking about what you didn’t do, couldn’t do, and running events over and over in your head trying to find a way to do better. The emotional turmoil of wishing things were different but knowing there is little you can do to change this. The moments of distress as you watch a patient die and their family experience loss.
Nurses hold space. We do what we can to take care of each other. If a provider sits for a moment, we do our best to let them be, and we wish a moment of peace on them. We do our best to be pleasant, smile, tell our patients we aren’t too busy for them and, help calm their anxiety and fears. Holding space is emotionally and psychologically taxing, and some have little left to give. Yet, we hold space……so you can heal, say hello or goodbye to a loved one, give hope, and seek peace when hope turns to finality.
It has been two years of Covid. Two years of coming home to our families tired, sad, depressed, anxious, frustrated, angry….our friends and family have done their best to care for us. But, it has been two years.
And even though we are tired, we will press on. We will be here for you!
SLIDE SHOW
This is for you my friends.
Diverse Transitions Birth Services 