My assignment on the 5200 COVID-19 unit has been the most challenging of my career. Last year, a small group of Nurses were informed that we would be responsible for implementing the first COVID floor at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. COVID seemed so mysterious at first. I couldn't connect to the stories on the news describing the mortality of COVID in China and Italy. There was something implausible about its novelty. My naivete blanketed me from experiencing much fear initially. This faded fast as the reality of the pandemic set in. The first few months were particularly harrowing. I remember receiving the first patient paged up to our floor last March. She was in her early 50's and lived at home with her husband and daughter. Her medical history was unremarkable. She was febrile and on three liters of supplemental oxygen. I remember how frightened she was at testing positive for COVID and how frightened I became as I was confronted with my lack of experience with the virus. How could I reassure her or give her perspective on something I had never witnessed clinically? Who could reassure me? Within 90 minutes she was transferred to the ICU for intubation. The ICU was at capacity and looked like a war zone. The very next day, her husband was admitted to our floor. They both eventually expired, leaving their daughter an orphan.
I remember wondering if this would be what I should expect going forward. What we discovered has been a year of trauma, loss, and grief without the usual support and structure previously afforded outside the walls of COVID. A year of emergently sending patients to the ICU for intubation, patients suddenly becoming DNR/DNI/Comfort care and expiring, COVID patients with psychiatric illnesses assaulting Nurses, and our very own Nurses and family members getting sick and even dying.
The isolation we experienced was also new. No one would come to our floor upon realizing it serviced COVID patients. Until now, I never fully understood the ecosystem of a floor and how it operates. We became responsible for all of the auxiliary services and resources provided under normal circumstances: ordering, rationing, and recycling PPE. Housekeeping duties, rotating sharps containers, managing and cleaning Hill-Rom beds and Alaris pumps, managing food delivery and tray consolidation for dietary, telemetry maintenance as well as other equipment management. Setting up phone calls and electronic media for physicians reticent to assess patients in person. Facilitating zoom sessions for family members unable to visit their loved ones. After the surprise of working with COVID patients wore off, we were left with the unexpected challenge of working in an environment of isolation and exclusion.
In retrospect, what has made our floor so remarkable despite the immense pressure of the pandemic? The answer is the core group of 5200 Nurses that have not only remained steadfast to the mission of our organization to take exceptional care of our patients and their families but how we have come together as a team. We had no one to rely on but us, and we were our best asset. The merit of our patient advocacy is highlighted by our excellent safety scores for CHG bathing, Clabsi, Cauti, falls, and PPE compliance. Very few of our staff contracted COVID.
We have pioneered a frontier that most could not or would not be involved in. It is this landscape, which carried enormous risk to the physical and mental health of tenacity, work ethic, and loyalty. Whereas lucrative travel opportunities for COVID Nurses outside this hospital abounded, we remained, committed to BJH and our patients that desperately needed our expertise. We did not capitulate.
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Team members honored with this DAISY TEAM Award:
David Becker, RN
Dawn Dennis, RN
Vladislav Dravin, RN
Jennifer Krause, RN
Brian Novak, RN
Melinda Reichwein, RN
Erin Rupple, RN
Shelley Thornton, RN
Jennifer Tonn, RN
Amy Alexander, RN
Senada Huskic, RN
Dawn Johnson, RN
Jessica Marshall, RN
Robert Miller, RN
Loannes Sakarelos, RN
Matthew Stempin, RN
Denita Wilkins, RN