HARRISBURG (TNS) — In my 19 years of nursing, I have never experienced anything like COVID-19. Every time one bed empties, another patient is admitted. We’re working many extra hours, wrapped in PPE, never escaping the constant buzz of alarms. COVID is unpredictable so you can never let down your guard — not even for a second.
Losing patients and counseling grieving families is part of being a nurse, unfortunately now it’s happening too often, and the unrelenting physical and emotional demands are just so much.
Pennsylvania is experiencing a terrifying COVID surge. We are losing thousands of our family and neighbors daily to this pandemic. In just two days (Dec. 13-15), there was a 50% increase in COVID admissions in Pennsylvania.
This month 85% of the state’s ICU beds were filled.That doesn’t mean that every hospital still has 15% of its beds available; it means that a huge majority of our hospitals are filled up and the only beds left are in places that haven’t spiked. PPE supplies are dwindling and sometimes whole floors can’t function safely as caregivers fall ill and burn out.
We come into this profession to help and to heal, and we aren’t able to keep up.
This holiday season, we need your help.
It is not a coincidence that the latest COVID surge came after Thanksgiving. Millions across the country traveled for the holiday, with TSA reporting it screened 1.17 million people on Nov. 30 alone, despite repeated warnings and guidance from medical professionals.
Unless we want to overwhelm our health care system, we cannot do this again.
And please don’t talk to us about “living in fear.” We have the guts to risk our lives every day, fighting to put the pandemic in check. We don’t need lessons in courage from people who think bravery is drinking eggnog in a crowded bar. Do your part. Mask up. Reschedule your elective surgeries, Comply with the restrictions. Stay home for the holidays.
2020 has been a year that tested us like no other. We can beat COVID-19, but we can’t do it alone. We’ll do our part. You do yours.
(Myra Taylor is a registered nurse with SEIU Healthcare PA in Harrisburg.)
