Has anyone left nursing job due to COVID19 virus?

Nurses COVID

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I am curious to find out if anyone has decided to leave their current job due to the risk of this virus? I work in the Emergency Department and we are now being asked to reuse PPE and to prepare for a surge of COVID 19 patients. This makes me sick to my stomach and concerned for my co workers, other patients along with the risk we bring home to our own families.

Juan I hope that your administrators will help you identify some better area of service that enables you to take care of your daughter and work from home during this time. Your situation seems so appropriate for that type of measure. Perhaps you could work on a nursing consult line or something. I encourage you to talk to your supervisor or HR about whether something like that might be an option. The state health department websites have announcements calling for nursing "volunteers". Volunteers are paid (at least they are in WA), and they have all kinds of jobs to fill. I really think that you can still work and contribute to this Fight as a nurse without putting yourself and your daughter at such risk.

Good luck to you!

0 Votes
On 3/25/2020 at 11:47 PM, Workitinurfava said:

All that is happening on my unit is wipe downs with bleach wipes every so many hours. Pts can come up to the unit with suspected corona symptoms and nothing gets done about it until days later. This type of behavior is the norm though. It has been going on long before COVID so why would COVID change anything. We all sit apart from each other for report but everyone still piles up in the medication room together and I don't see anyone wiping the machine down. I do though. I am guessing someone is either hiding all of the mask or stole them because staff can't find any. The gloves we use are very cheap. When I put them on they tear. God help me, I pray, wash my hands and hope for the best. I will save my money and plot my exit at some time later down the road but no, it isn't because of COVID, it is because of other stuff.

Yep. It's always about the money. And when one staff person falls they just fill the hole with another. That's exactly why they are graduating nursing students early if they agree to work the front line. They are eager for a job and don't know any better.

2 Votes

So at my nursing home they are telling us that we can't use a mask unless a patient has a positive Covid test or has a test pending. We can't even wear a simple surgical mask. Meanwhile I am high risk and my doctor's office is telling me "Because half of all people will never show symptoms, you have to assume everyone you interact with has it and take precautions with everyone." I have been toying with the idea of remote work for a while, and this is probably the thing that will get me to take the leap... but have you guys noticed that a ton of the remote nursing jobs have disappeared in the past month? Anthem in particular is really drying up, and I am wondering if that is because they are expecting to get hit hard with medical claims...

I just want to say I fully support any nurse who decides to leave their jobs to protect their life or their family. Nothing else matters more.

5 Votes
Specializes in ED, LTACH, Home care, Urgent Care.

Very informative video from an ICU doctor at Cornell University who is working with Covid 19 patients. It is long but very much worth watching and informative. It did put my mind at ease some but I still agree that we need appropriate PPE to do our jobs safely and effectively.

2 Votes

This thing right here...... this is what happens when non-medical people run medicine. They don't, correction won't, do what's necessary because all they're worried about is money and their bonuses. They don't give a damn about us because they're not on the front lines and actually at risk of catching this virus on a medical unit. They're creating incubators for this virus.

I literally sit back and wonder how many of these new cases come from medical staff who went home or out at the grocery store on their day off or what have you, or floated to covid units to help out and next day placed on regular units and we're the culprits of spreading this due to lack of PPE. Yes, we mean well and many are working their heart and soul to help those in need, but we have to also look at ourselves as being carriers. Not that we're doing it intentionally, but because the bureaucrats don't really care about the important facts, only money.

8 Votes
Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
8 minutes ago, NurseBlaq said:

This thing right here...... this is what happens when non-medical people run medicine. They don't, correction won't, do what's necessary because all they're worried about is money and their bonuses. They don't give a damn about us because they're not on the front lines and actually at risk of catching this virus on a medical unit. They're creating incubators for this virus.

I literally sit back and wonder how many of these new cases come from medical staff who went home or out at the grocery store on their day off or what have you, or floated to covid units to help out and next day placed on regular units and we're the culprits of spreading this due to lack of PPE. Yes, we mean well and many are working their heart and soul to help those in need, but we have to also look at ourselves as being carriers. Not that we're doing it intentionally, but because the bureaucrats don't really care about the important facts, only money.

They've been pushing the staffing envelope for so long now, we all wondered where it will end. The camel's back might finally be breaking.

6 Votes
Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

ER here as well.

Our masks and face shields are the in clinical supervisors office, but the clin sups will hand them out. We are supposed to keep the face shield and wipe it down, for an indeterminant length of time (not just the shift).

I made a bunch of cloth face masks and took them in, ran out in about 10 minutes.... next morning my director said the hospital hadn't come up with a policy about that yet. Didn't stop us wearing them though!

One whole section of ER beds has been designated the COVID r/o area; two are negative pressure. It is being well-staffed by inhouse nurses and aides, not the ER (thank God). Anyone coming into the ER with resp complaints is put on droplet precautions automatically, so we gown and glove but have to reuse the gowns and masks (leaving the gown at the door, not room to room). If admitted, the pt goes over to the COVID area.

The hospital is doing flex and comp time for the low inhouse census. They are recruiting a "superhero" team to be on call and take the COVID pts; if called in is time and half, plus $10 hour. I'm not signing up as I am high risk; over 60 & post cancer treatment lung damage.

2 Votes
On 3/26/2020 at 4:36 PM, Elven_RN said:

At the job I just left for many different reasons, one of their guidelines was that we were not supposed to wear a mask unless we were working within 3 feet of someone displaying active symptoms... :-o. This made me so angry. 3 feet?! That's basically in someone's face. Displaying active symptoms? So basically they had to be hacking AND within 3 feet for us to be permitted to wear masks (when someone can spread the virus before showing any symptoms).

...and that's the thing.. that is the biggest problem now. The symptoms are showing up much later and by the time we realize it they are on a vent and we are trying to backtrack and see where this patient was and who may have been exposed...

3 Votes
8 hours ago, NurseBlaq said:

This is the problem! They don't send firefighters into burning buildings without masks and waterless hoses. They don't send police to armed bank robberies with toothpicks. They don't send military into combat without weapons. Why are nurses expected to treat patients in a highly contagious pandemic without protective gear?

Yes this!!!

3 Votes
11 hours ago, gizelda196 said:

I am having so much anxiety over the lack of staff, supplies, support ,the working conditions. I just dont want to do this any more. 25 years in nursing. I'm an ED RN.

I honestly had a moment too. I was working and the rules were changing mid shift... It made me feel like what are they not telling us and I felt like I was having a panic attack at WORK!. Me, I want to know everything and feel secure but with this, IDK... Once I finished that shift, went home and started chatting with my family.. that always makes me feel better because that is why I'm out there...

2 Votes
2 hours ago, angelberry said:

The enforced and proper use of full PPE virtually eliminated infection of nurses caring for Covid-19 patients in China. Before a "PPE Taskforce" was put in place over 3,000 nurses there contracted the disease (Desperate for Covid-19 answers, U.S. doctors turn to colleagues in China). PPE is the one effective means of protecting us against from becoming infected, and while hospitals keep reporting that "supplies could run out," I firmly believe that they still have them on hand. In my opinion they are hoarding supplies just like the public and putting workers at risk as a result. If enough people quit perhaps they will trust that more supplies will be available and they will free up those they have in storage for safekeeping.

This is just my opinion, but where else are all of these masks disappearing to? At the VA they didn't provide eye protection for weeks. Finally on March 23 they gave each unit ONE set of goggles for all employees on that unit to SHARE. Not one set per day. One set period.

This happened the weekend of Mar 13th at my facility as well. In one day all of the masks, hand sanitizer, purple top wipes just vanished... We are using bleach wipes... I'm sure they were removed from the floors..

4 Votes

Yep. And I'll bet the people who removed them spend zero time at the bedside.

6 Votes
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