Are Big City Hospitals Really Getting Hit With COVID-19 Pts?

Nurses COVID

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I'm almost embarrassed to post this... I am an ED nurse at a 450-bed hospital in the midwest. We have not been taxed by COVID patients yet. My wife has become somewhat of a conspiracy theorist and is questioning everything. She found a thread somewhere that convinced her that what we are seeing on TV is not really happening. We have had some serious arguments about this stuff, but she won't stop. She said that lots of nurses were reporting that nothing was happening at their hospitals.

I would like to see if any of the nurses from the hospitals that are being seriously affected are on this forum and can comment. I realize that most of you are probably too exhausted to even get on a forum.

Thank you!

Specializes in Health insurance nursing/ Cardiac nursing.
On 4/15/2020 at 11:53 AM, EPS said:

I didn't mean to get everyone all upset. I just wanted to hear from nurses who are seeing this first hand. I don't really need the rants, just the facts.

I can’t understand how some of these people think it’s appropriate to become this angry or aggressive over a simple question where you are asking for honest feedback regarding other nurses work conditions during this pandemic.

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Specializes in Health insurance nursing/ Cardiac nursing.
On 4/15/2020 at 12:46 PM, hherrn said:

Could you please lay out the thought process?

I have been trying to figure this out, and maybe you can help.

When she sees the refrigerator trucks as morgues, does she think that is staged? Or does she think it is pretty normal to stack corpses in a truck designed for produce.

You have gotten answers that are both angry and sincere. Could you give us an understanding of what we are up against?

I believe your wife is delusional. Not as an insult. I looked it up to see if it was too strong a word. "characterized by or holding idiosyncratic beliefs or impressions that are contradicted by reality or rational argument, typically as a symptom of mental disorder."

I am wholly unqualified to diagnose a mental disorder, but the rest is spot on.

There is a lot of false information in the media so I’m sure it has something to do with that. This is certainly real but there’s also a politics involved. Many people are skeptics for that reason.

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On 4/15/2020 at 7:11 PM, PCU_RN9 said:

There is a lot of false information in the media so I’m sure it has something to do with that. This is certainly real but there’s also a politics involved. Many people are skeptics for that reason.

I have no idea what you are talking about.

Obviously there are politics involved. Decisions are made by politicians.

I am not sure you mean about the media, and false information.

To be clear:

  • There is a bad virus.
  • It kills a lot of people.
  • Countries that employ science based proactive proactive measures fare better than countries that base do not.
  • Many hospitals are overloaded.

So, while there are certainly different ways to interpret information, no sane, sentient human debates any of those facts.

So- tell me more about the skeptics. Clue me in to the mind of these folks. Explain to me the skeptic's take on the pictures of bodies, and the large military ship and the tents in central park.

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Specializes in Step down.

I work in a smaller hospital in New England and we are starting to get hit. ICU is close to full and is considered a warm zone so only positive patients are going there. I work in step down and all negative ICU level patients are being sent to my unit. All Step Down and float nurses and overflow staff are being cross trained to ICU. The plan is if we get hit hard these nurses will be caring for the critical patients with 1 ICU nurse overseeing three other nurses.They just converted another Med-surg unit for Covid positive patients so now we have two. Hospital census is still low and still have a unit closed with staff on furlough until *** hits the fan.

While this virus is very real I have seen some real truth in some of the conspiracy theories my husband has been showing me and believe there is more to this situation.

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I didn't intend on upsetting so many people. I have been an ED nurse for 26 years. My wife and I have been arguing every day about this. Something has happened to her that I don't understand. I am being honest. You shouldn't be offended by me... I am one of you. We haven't been hit hard yet, but it still has been miserable being in ppe for most of the shift. I was hoping to get some perspectives to show her. It apparently was a mistake.

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33 minutes ago, EPS said:

I didn't intend on upsetting so many people. I have been an ED nurse for 26 years. My wife and I have been arguing every day about this. Something has happened to her that I don't understand. I am being honest. You shouldn't be offended by me... I am one of you. We haven't been hit hard yet, but it still has been miserable being in ppe for most of the shift. I was hoping to get some perspectives to show her. It apparently was a mistake.

Your wife has exited the realm of rural and/or conservative individuals who are honestly engaged with the world and has drifted into a kind of right wingnut culture cult. Normal people can realise that CNN is occasionally full of **** without buying into worldwide conspiracy theories.

Whenever someone tells you that everyone else - the whole world - is lying to you and that the only people who will speak the truth is themselves and their narrow band of likeminded individuals... there's a word for that. It's called brainwashing. Sounds like your wife has been listening to some brainwashers. Good luck de-programming her.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

Gentle reminder that while Allnurses promotes the idea of lively debate, please refrain from divisive posting or name calling.

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I work in a Boston hospital. We have hundreds of COVID+ ICU patients.

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On 4/15/2020 at 8:31 PM, EPS said:

I didn't intend on upsetting so many people. I have been an ED nurse for 26 years. My wife and I have been arguing every day about this. Something has happened to her that I don't understand. I am being honest. You shouldn't be offended by me... I am one of you. We haven't been hit hard yet, but it still has been miserable being in ppe for most of the shift. I was hoping to get some perspectives to show her. It apparently was a mistake.

Nah, I think you just hit a sore spot. Hopefully your wife will come to her senses before she shreds your relationship although I fear that ship may have sailed. It’s a whole “nuther” level of insensitivity and egocentrism for her to even harbor these beliefs. Not a good combo for a long term marriage. It’s hard to say how different areas will be affected. I am in a large city in one of the top ten populous states. We are stable at the moment, not overwhelmed but our stats took a sharp rise today and we are expected to peak early next week. If we keep climbing like this it’s going to get ugly very fast. Not NYC ugly but still ugly. I just got fitted for PPE today with likely re-deployment to ICU. I’m an ambulatory nurse if that tells you anything. ?

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On 4/15/2020 at 8:31 PM, EPS said:

I didn't intend on upsetting so many people. I have been an ED nurse for 26 years. My wife and I have been arguing every day about this. Something has happened to her that I don't understand. I am being honest. You shouldn't be offended by me... I am one of you. We haven't been hit hard yet, but it still has been miserable being in ppe for most of the shift. I was hoping to get some perspectives to show her. It apparently was a mistake.

Skeptical.

As an ER nurse for 26 years how could you not know how this thread would play out?

A simple Google search would yield thousands of accounts.

Serious question- does she believe the bodies being carried to trucks are mannequins? If so, how would a few more voices on this forum change her mind?

While I am skeptical about your portrayal, you do bring up an interesting point, and I was hoping somewhere in this thread that somebody could provide insight into the kind of delusional thinking you describe. I have a friend who, while not so extreme, has been using FB to cast doubt about this crisis. I blocked him, as I would like to keep liking him.

But, generally speaking, he is not an imbecile. I have come to understand that this kind of thinking is a belief system- a matter of faith. Faith and knowledge are different. Knowledge requires facts. Faith can be thought of as belief without evidence.

A religious person does not need evidence of god- he/she has faith. There are millions in the country who believe that the earth is 5000 years old. There are 20 year olds who believe that the 40 year old will leave his wife and children for her. People believe all kinds of things despite evidence to the contrary.

But I find this particular belief system particularly vile- it has killed people in this country and will continue to. Somebody else likened it to holocaust deniers, and honestly, other than scope, I don't think that is that far of the mark.

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C19 will hit you guys one day, this is not going away, Seattle where I am has been on fairly tight lockdown since the first of March. I compare it to a wet tarp over a hot fire full of coals. Start lifting that tarp up and the flames will rip again. Our ICU's are full and folks are going WOW!, they stay on vents a longgggggg time. Look at the UW studies 60% mortality in a very limited review when you end up on a vent with this. But everyone is running out of money and we need to start up electives and help all the folks we have pushed to the side as well. There are still folks having glioblastoma's, need liver/kidney transplants, having Cranial facial injuries, getting burned, et et et... the world can not stop for this....or should it?

That being said it is in the communities and we are just going to have to let this ripple gently and not overwhelm us, as I know folks here know. It will not be pretty. Your wife? HA, let her live with that view of innocence, sadly she will have to reconcile its a real issue.

We can be so influenced by input. I have such a fear of getting it and concern for the country. Yet a friend today told me about a 70 yr old friend with lymphoma who infected four other folks and they are did well, no big deal.

All we here see is that 2-5% of dreadfulness, much of the country and people does not see it in the same visceral sense.

Tough issue.

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Five county Philadelphia area has had stay-at home orders since March 19th.

Philadelphia PA's Temple University Hospital is in the epicenter of Philly COVID-19 patients. Their former children's hospital was converted to Boyer Pavilion for physicians offices and outpatient center several years ago. It was reconfigured into a COVID only hospital. The lobby is now a unit for mild Covid patients needing oxygen and medication support. Office spaces on upper floors converted to ICU beds.

See the article and photo display about conditions there.

The infusion pumps have been moved outside patient rooms so that nurses do not have to enter the rooms as frequently to check their alarms/change settings/hang IV meds--- photo shows tubing snaking along the floor a HUGE infection control issue 2 months ago but now a necessity. Hospitals in NY city are forced to do the same thing.

# Positive cases in Philadelphia yesterday: 7, 441; One week ago: 4,777. # Covid related Deaths: 222 in past month.

PA state: 26,490 positive infected citizens with 667 deaths due to the virus.

Yes this is real.

Photos: A behind-the-scenes look at Temple's COVID hospital

https://www.inquirer.com/zzz-systest/behind-the-scenes-look-temples-covid-hospital-20200410.html

Article: Inside a Philadelphia COVID-19 hospital, where everything is repurposed toward survival

Quote

Here, where the critical patients with COVID-19 are kept, it is quiet. There are no families talking among themselves; visitors are not allowed. There are no televisions tuned to daytime talk shows; the patients are unconscious, eyes closed under a loose braid of tubes. The yellow ones feed the patients; the blue tubes keep them warm. The clear tubes are for breathing, what is keeping them alive. https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/a/philadelphia-coronavirus-response-temple-university-hospital-20200412.html

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