Rita's coming-my hospital won't close!!

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Need all of your input before possibly my last shift here today:

My hospital is about 4-5 blocks from the gulf and right in the path of Rita which is currently 170-175 mph winds.

They keep reporting on TV how the hospitals here are evacuating which they are, our last patient was air lifted out last night.

But...they are making us stay here and ride it out for the stragglers who didn't follow the mandatory evacuation.

We have absolutely no patients in this hospital but they refuse to close it and are keeping our ER open which consequently means that we need OR, ICU, etc. beds open as well.

The storm surge is expected to be quite high.

I'm thinking of leaving here today after my shift is over and evacuating and will probably get fired.

Am I crazy?

What would you all do if you were me?

So basically those of us who are young tend to punk out and run when things get tough? What about the fact that I stayed for four days at my workplace during an icestorm? (BTW, we were using one of the retirement cottages to sleep since staff had to work in rotations, so we had to navigate an iced-over parking lot in order to do so.) We spring chickens are tougher than y'all think. :cool:

No, I was just offering an observation. I was in my 20s when I got stuck, for more then ten days, at AMC, following a blizzard. I was in my late teens when the first blackout hit NYC. And in my early 30s when the second one hit. I am now 60 and most of the nurses, who remained behind to take care of me, in our damaged ER were in their 40s and 50s. There were some who were in their 20s and 30s. I appluad their commitment to their potential patients. As I said, I was just making an observation.

Grannynurse :balloons:

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I don't think us young folks chicken out.

There are a lot of men and women in their 20's and 30's serving their country in Iraq, Afghanistan and in other places in the Armed Forces. The Army Nurse Corp and the Navy Nurse Corps are full of young nurses who put themselves in harm's way everyday.

I know there are also military persons in their 40's and 50's.

Sacrifice knows no age.

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

:smackingf A sense of committment is not a generational thing! It is an individual thing!

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Specializes in M/S/Tele, Home Health, Gen ICU.

When I was single I would have stayed in an empty hospital, or one with patients in a heartbeat. When I was married with no kids I would have stayed if there were patients after talking with my DH, kissing him goodbye and asking for him to think of me. Now I'm a Mom of a 2 yr old and a 6 yr old there is no way I would risk my life for a building and the patients that might come after, I have a duty to my children to be there for them. That being said, if DH could stay with the kids I'd be the first to return. I love my job, nursing and patients, but I love my family more and I'm 40.

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My hospital is located halfway between Galveston and downtown Houston. I spent over 20 hours last Wednesday evacuating patient's from my hospital. Then drove 6 hours to the northwest side of Houston where I worked 5 12's in a row. It was absolutely crazy! I worked ICU - lack of supplies and lack of meds was fun, let me tell you! But I made it through! The hospital gave us pt rooms to stay in while we worked. Luckily the storm missed both the hospital I work at and the one I was sent to. Definately an experience considering, I am not an ICU nurse, I do not work day shift - which I did, and I got to meet many travel nurses from around the country that were great to work with!!!!!! Hope everyone stayed safe!

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My hospital is located halfway between Galveston and downtown Houston. I spent over 20 hours last Wednesday evacuating patient's from my hospital. Then drove 6 hours to the northwest side of Houston where I worked 5 12's in a row. It was absolutely crazy! I worked ICU - lack of supplies and lack of meds was fun, let me tell you! But I made it through! The hospital gave us pt rooms to stay in while we worked. Luckily the storm missed both the hospital I work at and the one I was sent to. Definately an experience considering, I am not an ICU nurse, I do not work day shift - which I did, and I got to meet many travel nurses from around the country that were great to work with!!!!!! Hope everyone stayed safe!

Hope you get some days off now. :)

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My hospital is located halfway between Galveston and downtown Houston. I spent over 20 hours last Wednesday evacuating patient's from my hospital. Then drove 6 hours to the northwest side of Houston where I worked 5 12's in a row. It was absolutely crazy! I worked ICU - lack of supplies and lack of meds was fun, let me tell you! But I made it through! The hospital gave us pt rooms to stay in while we worked. Luckily the storm missed both the hospital I work at and the one I was sent to. Definately an experience considering, I am not an ICU nurse, I do not work day shift - which I did, and I got to meet many travel nurses from around the country that were great to work with!!!!!! Hope everyone stayed safe!

How did you work as an ICU nurse if you are not trained as one???? Did you have responsiblity of care for those patients or just helping out???

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How did you work as an ICU nurse if you are not trained as one???? Did you have responsiblity of care for those patients or just helping out???

I guess the employer believes in the maxim a nurse is a nurse is a nurse :specs:

Grannynurse

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I just got back.

I did evacuate and this is why I wasn't able to answer Grannynurse's as well as the other poster's many questions and comments directed at me.

I just finished reading the many posts to my thread and can't possibly remember everything asked of me so I wouldn't even know where to begin.

I guess the big debate here is whether or not to evacuate and the moral obligations one takes on when entering the nursing profession.

Grannynurse:

Since you seem to object the most to my position and decision I'll at least address some of your comments that I can remember.

Of course it wouldn't be wise for me to actually name the hospital where I work so please don't ask me to do so.

But let me at least have a chance to say that everything said on TV and in the papers was not completely accurate so please keep that in mind when making comments about not relying on the OP (me) for the facts and instead look to other sources. I was here during this mess, you weren't.

The hospital did not become an all volunteer staff until late thursday morning after my last post and I didn't want to take any precious time to update you all when I was trying to leave.

Up until that time, yes, we were all forced to stay or be fired.

I spoke to the administrator myself at that time as she was aware that I was intending to leave whether or not I'd be fired. It came straight from her that yes, indeed, at that moment, the entire hospital patient population had been evacuated. Stragglers were still trying to get into the ER some time later so I'm not sure what that was all about and really honestly can't answer the "3 remaining patients" question.

I do know that at that time, ALL of the ICU's, including mine, and Med/Surg units were completely empty at the moment of my last post and this was confirmed by administration.

The fire dept was also indeed gone at the time of my last post and the mayor herself stated on TV that it was a difficult decision to call them back to handle the fire situation.

Why a young 30 year old would still have any business being there at that time to actually get burned to begin with and why you believe that we should be there for her during a cat. 5 is beyond me, but like you stated, maybe I just don't have the dedication that is appropriate for a nurse.

But after what I experienced during Rita, I honestly don't care.

After over 20 hours on the road and nearly running out of gas, watching car after car stalled on the side of the road, many with young babies, children, and elderly, while rescuing a co-worker who was also stalled on the road and thank God we were both stuck within 20 cars of each other and were able to figure it out, I've experienced plenty.

I handed out water bottles to as many as I could without going completely dry myself and watched mothers ration 12oz water bottles to 4-5 kids.

My partner is handy with auto repair and attempted to get cars back on the road but all too often it was something simple that he couldn't fix: No damn gas.

The one gas station that I finally found that had gas was refusing to let people fill gas cans that were stuck often several miles back and made them walk all the way back to their cars in the 99 degree heat and push their cars all the way to the gas station for a place in line.

I watched the local police write frivilous tickets and scream at people for minor traffic infractions while turning a blind eye to people jumping ahead in line for gas.

I listened to the radio every minute promising gas trucks to deliver gas to stuck motorists over the interstates but I never saw one during my entire journey (300+ miles) to Dallas.

The grand finale for us was by the time we were approaching the Dallas city limits early friday morning we witnessed a bus full of elderly evacuees burst into flames while people frantically attempted to pull them out of the burning vehicle on I-45.

I could tell more stories but I think I've made my point.

All I can say to you Grannynurse is this:

Thank God that some firemen and ER staff decided to risk their lives for one foolish young woman who decided to ignore mandatory evacuation orders and save her from being burned to death.

I'm sure that all of their spouses and children would understand if they lost their dads/spouses because it was so important to stay during an extemely dangerous storm to save the stragglers even though we were all told that we couldn't count on EMS/911 should anyone decide to stay.

I do indeed feel a sense of responsibility to both my community as well as my chosen profession but I owe neither my life.

I can sleep well at night knowing that I kept myself out of harm's way for the people in my life that I matter to, instead of throwing it away for strangers that didn't even care enough about themselves to evacuate to safety.

Thank you all for your very interesting responses and a special thanks to those who supported my decision and/or knocked some sense into my head during my time of indecision.

I'll never stay behind again for something like that. Nurse or no nurse.

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Specializes in ICU.

RN34TX, glad to hear that you and your partner are OK! Did your home suffer any damage?

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I'm very glad to hear from you; glad you're OK. Also glad you evacuated, but sorry it was such a dreadful experience. It sounds like it actually was as bad as we were hearing on the news.

It sounds to me like your head is on straight, that your priorities are in good order. Much good luck to you.

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I just got back.

I did evacuate and this is why I wasn't able to answer Grannynurse's as well as the other poster's many questions and comments directed at me.

I just finished reading the many posts to my thread and can't possibly remember everything asked of me so I wouldn't even know where to begin.

I guess the big debate here is whether or not to evacuate and the moral obligations one takes on when entering the nursing profession.

Grannynurse:

Since you seem to object the most to my position and decision I'll at least address some of your comments that I can remember.

Of course it wouldn't be wise for me to actually name the hospital where I work so please don't ask me to do so.

But let me at least have a chance to say that everything said on TV and in the papers was not completely accurate so please keep that in mind when making comments about not relying on the OP (me) for the facts and instead look to other sources. I was here during this mess, you weren't.

The hospital did not become an all volunteer staff until late thursday morning after my last post and I didn't want to take any precious time to update you all when I was trying to leave.

Up until that time, yes, we were all forced to stay or be fired.

I spoke to the administrator myself at that time as she was aware that I was intending to leave whether or not I'd be fired. It came straight from her that yes, indeed, at that moment, the entire hospital patient population had been evacuated. Stragglers were still trying to get into the ER some time later so I'm not sure what that was all about and really honestly can't answer the "3 remaining patients" question.

I do know that at that time, ALL of the ICU's, including mine, and Med/Surg units were completely empty at the moment of my last post and this was confirmed by administration.

The fire dept was also indeed gone at the time of my last post and the mayor herself stated on TV that it was a difficult decision to call them back to handle the fire situation.

Why a young 30 year old would still have any business being there at that time to actually get burned to begin with and why you believe that we should be there for her during a cat. 5 is beyond me, but like you stated, maybe I just don't have the dedication that is appropriate for a nurse.

But after what I experienced during Rita, I honestly don't care.

After over 20 hours on the road and nearly running out of gas, watching car after car stalled on the side of the road, many with young babies, children, and elderly, while rescuing a co-worker who was also stalled on the road and thank God we were both stuck within 20 cars of each other and were able to figure it out, I've experienced plenty.

I handed out water bottles to as many as I could without going completely dry myself and watched mothers ration 12oz water bottles to 4-5 kids.

My partner is handy with auto repair and attempted to get cars back on the road but all too often it was something simple that he couldn't fix: No gas.

The one gas station that I finally found that had gas was refusing to let people fill gas cans that were stuck often several miles back and made them walk all the way back to their cars in the 99 degree heat and push their cars all the way to the gas station for a place in line.

I watched the local police write frivilous tickets and scream at people for minor traffic infractions while turning a blind eye to people jumping ahead in line for gas.

I listened to the radio every minute promising gas trucks to deliver gas to stuck motorists over the interstates but I never saw one during my entire journey (300+ miles) to Dallas.

The grand finale for us was by the time we were approaching the Dallas city limits early friday morning we witnessed a bus full of elderly evacuees burst into flames while people frantically attempted to pull them out of the burning vehicle on I-45.

I could tell more stories but I think I've made my point.

All I can say to you Grannynurse is this:

Thank God that some firemen and ER staff decided to risk their lives for one foolish young woman who decided to ignore mandatory evacuation orders and save her from being burned to death.

I'm sure that all of their spouses and children would understand if they lost their dads/spouses because it was so important to stay during an extemely dangerous storm to save the stragglers even though we were all told that we couldn't count on EMS/911 should anyone decide to stay.

I do indeed feel a sense of responsibility to both my community as well as my chosen profession but I owe neither my life.

I can sleep well at night knowing that I kept myself out of harm's way for the people in my life that I matter to, instead of throwing it away for strangers that didn't even care enough about themselves to evacuate to safety.

Thank you all for your very interesting responses and a special thanks to those who supported my decision and/or knocked some sense into my head during my time of indecision.

I'll never stay behind again for something like that. Nurse or no nurse.

I am glad that you made it to Dallas. You did what you felt you had to do. And I would do what I felt I had to do, remain behind, if asked. This does not make me more a hero or a fool. It does not make me more committed or anyone else less committed. It is a matter of personal choice. And perhaps having a weakness for the well-being of those who do not care enough about themselves to evacuate.

I have always had a weakness for the less forunate and the foolish.

Grannynurse :balloons:

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