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

[EPS]

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!

[Waiting for Retirement]

11 minutes ago, sevensonnets said:

Yep, impossible scenarios set up by someone with (new) after the name generally are fiction.

I have to learn to be more cynical. On message boards at least!

[spotangel, DNP, RN, NP]

OP! It’s real! I was deployed from an ambulatory Clinic in NYC to an inpatient medical surgical floor. 46 pts all extremely sick and desaturating, with 8 vents, 4 nurses, 1 nurses aide and all COVID. It is hell and the staff have PTSD at this point. PPES is a joke with one N95 for 12.5 hrs. Pt die alone as no one stops for long at one bedside but keeps going to the next. I can’t tell you how many hands I have held and prayed while doing finger stick glucose or while putting their oxygen back on that has fallen off, to go back and find them dead.Vents are not very effective. There is no one to feed or change the pt if you don’t stop to help. Ask your wife to write privately to me if she wants to know more. 31 years Of nursing and I come home and weep nowadays.I haven’t hugged my hubby or kids for months! Hubby works in the ED and tells me that it is a zoo.Peace and stay safe!

[ICUyall, BSN, RN]

So I’m a critical care float pool nurse for an entire hospital system, and because of my involvement within my hospital system I am privy to the number of COVID patients throughout my hospital system. We have quite a few patients systemwide, 300+, but considering my hospital system varies from smaller 200 bed hospitals to hospitals with over 700 beds, you can imagine that our ability to provide care is higher than the demand we are seeing.

I will say that the stay at home orders have been a huge part of that reality. If it weren’t for the shutdown of most states, I would think it would obviously be a much different scenario.

[blr3, BSN, RN]

They have closed three floors in my hospital. We do have COVID patients but, as of right now, we are not being overrun with patients. Which is a great thing.

[Schweet]

All but one floor of our hospital is Covid now. It is real. We went from low census to full in about 1 1/2 weeks. And we are in a state that did the stay at home order quickly. High population, international airports and C19 invading SNFs, have contributed.

Just last week I hoped maybe our city and our lower census showed we had locked down quick enough but my hopes were wrong. Hopefully we'll never be inundated thanks to people, for the most part, adhering to stay at home. Though, looks like we are headed in the crazy busy direction quickly.

As Public Health puts it, if we flatten the curve successfully by staying home, it will all look like an overreaction. I hope this will be the case in most places.

[Guest219794]

3 hours ago, spotangel said:

OP! It’s real! I was deployed from an ambulatory Clinic in NYC to an inpatient medical surgical floor. 46 pts all extremely sick and desaturating, with 8 vents, 4 nurses, 1 nurses aide and all COVID. It is hell and the staff have PTSD at this point. PPES is a joke with one N95 for 12.5 hrs. Pt die alone as no one stops for long at one bedside but keeps going to the next. I can’t tell you how many hands I have held and prayed while doing finger stick glucose or while putting their oxygen back on that has fallen off, to go back and find them dead.Vents are not very effective. There is no one to feed or change the pt if you don’t stop to help. Ask your wife to write privately to me if she wants to know more. 31 years Of nursing and I come home and weep nowadays.I haven’t hugged my hubby or kids for months! Hubby works in the ED and tells me that it is a zoo.Peace and stay safe!

If the OP is real, he has been an ER nurse for 26 years. If he is not confident that this is real, he lacks the critical thinking skills needed to do the job, and should resign immediately.
If his wife is a real person, and believes there is an elaborate conspiracy afoot, and this is fiction aided by The Deep State and Big Media, she is in need of professional help.
There are thousands of testimonials available on line, pretty sure this thread isn't going to change her mind. For starters, she probably is not real.

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[egg122 NP, MSN, APRN]

Public hospitals in Queens are overwhelmed with COVID patients. We couldn't get patients out of the ER for 3-4 days due to the fact that the hospital is full beyond capacity. Almost 100% of the patient are COVID positive and if they did not have it when they came in, they may have picked it up in the ER. There are multiple RRTs and codes a shift.

[CommunityRNBSN, BSN, RN]

I am not sure why people jumped down this OP’s throat (other than that tensions are running high and people are feeling emotional). It’s a legitimate question. “Are things the way they appear on TV?” Several nurses with experience have posted a resounding YES. But I see no reason to be offended by someone seeking information.

[Wsmith16, ADN, BSN]

OP, it is real and scary. Hospitals in NY are slammed with Covid 19 patients, nurses and doctors, healthcare staff are getting sick. It's not a joke. I really wish it were. Just be thankful that your area is not as affected. It's quite odd that folks would think that we would have to shelter in place for something not real. I can't speak for other states but folks in NY would not tolerate that.

[Ambiguphobia]

NYC ER RN.

We opened up 6 more ICUs, closed down psych, peds, surgical services and converted those to med/surg.

Several nights ago, I was on my own with 6 ICU patients who were all unstable, vented, and on multiple drips that we are short on so the risk of it running out by the time pharmacy had it ready was very real. And it just so no happens that I did run out of several drips which nearly killed three of them. Also, I had 6 ER patients on top of the ICU case load. At one time -- I wish I could say this patient load was what I cared for throughout my 12.5 hour shift, but no, this was at a single point in time. No techs, no other nurses. Everyone has covid.

We are not keeping people 6 feet away from each other. Not that we ever did, but also because it's just physically impossible. We aren't putting people in individual rooms because we use those rooms to intubate everyone. We are low on ventilators and using super old school ones that I've never seen before.

ICU patients are in my ER for over 100 hours sometimes before they finally get a bed upstairs. Then the floors refuse report because they are "overwhelmed" by their patient load.

If you are a floor nurse - STOP THIS NONSENSE. We are MORE overwhelmed because there is NO maximum on ER nurse patient ratios. PATIENTS DO NOT STOP COMING IN, WE SEE MORE PATIENTS THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE. At least floor nurses have a maximum amount of beds before they are full.

I have never seen this much death. I am not taking breaks. My management literally begs us all to do any number of hours for overtime because we are dropping like flies with coronavirus (I already had it and took 2 weeks off). Everyone is so tired, with headaches, and our faces are bruised from the masks.

The floors are full of rapid responses and codes. The ER does not call the code phone line to announce it because it happens too much.

Our morgue truck is full and bodies don't fit, so we leave them outside on the ground next to the truck while we wait for a replacement. These trucks hold 100 bodies each.

Everyone that dies is dying alone. I no longer feel emotion as I tell my patient to call their loved ones on the phone because that might be the last time. I have to put all my emotions aside because otherwise, I'd be a crying mess all day at work, and that's not what I want my patients last view to be, before we sedate/paralyze, and intubate.

Yes, this is very, very real.

[blondenurse12, MSN, NP]

I am a nurse practitioner. I am not currently working in hospital, I work at an urgent care and we are also doing drive through Covid testing. My area is particularly affected but on the flipside of that is the pure fear mongering by the media. They were saying all Covid facilities were maxed out last week which was simply untrue.

The biggest Covid facility in our area was closed earlier in the week due to low census. Our field hospitals are barely being utilized. It seems the patients were transferred out so the other facility could be closed. Yes, people are dying and Covid is serious but the media is looking for clickbait and this is what is fueling some of the unrest. People are questioning the veracity of some of these claims. NYC is very hard hit, I have seen 10k weekly contract assignments. The media will sensationalize all of this and it only serves to breed doubt.

I will say, for the first time in my career, I have a majority of thankful patients. I truly hope this attitude continues and nurses are seen as an important part of society instead of punching bags.