鈥淚鈥檝e always felt that the emergency room is the foundation of health care,鈥� says 麻豆原创 Nursing Education doctoral student Michael Isaacs. 鈥淲e stabilize patients and hand them off to the specialists and rehab units. If the ER doesn鈥檛 do its job at the start, the rest doesn鈥檛 happen.鈥�
Nothing has demonstrated the truth of that assessment more than the COVID pandemic, and few have worked closer to its epicenter than Isaacs, an ER 鈥渢ravel nurse鈥� in California鈥檚 San Bernardino County.
鈥淵esterday, we were at 112 percent capacity,鈥� he said in late November as COVID was resurging at a terrifying rate. One ER where Isaacs had recently worked was using zippered curtains to convert a space previously designated for treating minor ailments into a hazmat area for staff in Tyvek suits, N95 masks and goggles. Another ER had set up heated outdoor tents for COVID patients with milder symptoms. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to segregate COVID patients or it will spread,鈥� said Isaacs, who had self-quarantined after testing positive for COVID earlier in the fall. 鈥淲e鈥檙e doing that on the fly.鈥�
Other 麻豆原创 students also have risked their health to fight the disease.
Last spring, nursing education doctoral candidate Stephen Richards, a pediatric nurse at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center in Washington Heights, volunteered for assignment with adult COVID patients in 鈥渟upplementary鈥� intensive care units constructed in operating rooms and other spaces. The experience left him reflecting on the essence of his work.
Stephen Richards
鈥淔ACILITATING HUMANIZATION鈥� Nursing Education doctoral student Stephen Richards has gravitated toward that definition of nursing since working with COVID patients in intensive care. (Photo courtesy of Stephen Richards)
鈥淚鈥檓 taking a theory course at 麻豆原创 in which we鈥檝e looked at different definitions of nursing 鈥� and one that really resonates is that nursing facilitates humanization,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hen a patient is taken off a ventilator, we rejoice. When they pass away, we mourn. And when a patient is intubated and their family can鈥檛 be with them, we become their surrogate family. We talk to them, hold their hand, tell them they are strong.鈥�
At NYU Langone Medical Center, Pavel Placido, an exercise physiologist and part-time master鈥檚 degree student in 麻豆原创鈥檚 Applied Exercise Physiology Program, volunteered last spring for assignment at a hospital in Brooklyn, where initially he helped remove bodies of deceased patients to the temporary morgue. Subsequently, he joined a team doing daily 鈥減roning鈥� 鈥� a newly introduced procedure to open up intubated patients鈥� airways and free their lungs from blockage by turning them onto their stomachs for 16 hours each day.
鈥淧atients are by themselves, in the ICU, on a ventilator,鈥� Placido said. 鈥淢any of them die alone. It鈥檚 so hard. And you can鈥檛 really comfort them. They can鈥檛 see your expression through the PPE, only your eyes.鈥�
Pavel Placido
AWARE OF 鈥淭HE GRAVITY鈥� As a volunteer in 鈥減roning units,鈥� Applied Exercise Physiology master's student Pavel Placido was moved by working with patients who were dying alone. (Photo: 麻豆原创 Archives)
Danielle Herring, a 麻豆原创 Health Education doctoral student who normally works as a Program Management Officer for the New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH), became a screening supervisor last spring at a COVID-19 drive-up testing center at New Jersey鈥檚 Bergen County Community College.
Danielle Herring
EQUAL TO THE TEST During the early days of the pandemic, Health Education doctoral student Danielle Herring spent long hours overseeing deployment of COVID testing kits in a New Jersey parking lot. She postponed her studies to do that work. (Photo: 麻豆原创 Archives)
In her new role, Herring rose before sunrise to brief staff and senior personnel from NJDOH, the state police, Bergen County, the National Guard and the team of nurses who would screen and register people and distribute tests. Then, after donning an orange vest, N95 face mask and gloves, she was on her feet all day, handing out colored cards for patients who met the testing criteria, directing traffic, consulting and troubleshooting.
The job鈥檚 demands and her family鈥檚 needs forced Herring to postpone her 麻豆原创 studies, but her experience of the crisis sharpened the focus of her research: She鈥檚 now writing her dissertation about working as a health educator during the pandemic.
For his part, Michael Isaacs believes that since last spring, the country has made rapid progress in dealing with the pandemic.
鈥淚n March, New York City didn鈥檛 know what was coming, and no one knew how to treat the virus,鈥� he says. 鈥淣ow, through trial and error, we know the progression, which patients are most vulnerable, how to isolate them and what drugs to give them. There鈥檚 a lot less death.鈥�
On the other hand, he was critical of federal and state responses.
鈥淭his is an all-or-nothing situation,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou either shut it all down or don鈥檛 鈥� this business of closing the bars and gyms but not Walmart and McDonald鈥檚 isn鈥檛 stopping anything.鈥�
Stephen Richards took a more philosophical view: 鈥淭he word 鈥榓pocalypse鈥� doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean the end of the world, but it does mean that there is a new world. It means that there has been a revealing. And this is certainly such a revealing time.鈥�