The medium-sized hospital (275 beds) where I work only has one ICU. But thanks to the unvaxxed we have had to open another ICU for COVID patients again.
We first did this last Winter and it was awful, but it was nobody's fault. Now it is.
We are keeping our COVID ICU open by nurses working overtime. Many have been working five or six 12 to 16-hour shifts a week for months now. People's lives are falling apart. In the last year, two of our ICU nurses have committed suicide. I don't know everything that was going on in their lives, but I'm quite certain that working long hard hours for months, never being home, having no downtime to relax and recharge has a LOT to do with it.
We actually had more COVID patients last Winter, but they were older and not as sick. Like 70s and 80s, vs now it's people in their 50s-60s and they are MUCH sicker. They die like flies. We had a 31-year-old die, and several in their 40s. One died and after to code the doc called and informed her family, but somehow her two teenage daughters who were en route to the hospital didn't get the message and I had to tell them. I'm noticing signs of PTSD in our ICU nurses who are, for the most part, young people. Most are in their 20's. To work so hard taking care of their patients for weeks only to have them die is soul-destroying. I zipped nine people into body bags over the weekend.
Long planned vacations have been canceled, nurses are losing touch with their families and support systems.
I've spent a lot of time and energy talking to people about COVID and vaccines. I've provided them with the latest data and evidence. I've related what it's like for hospital patients with COVID. But it's a waste of time and effort so I'm done with it.
Everyone who isn't stupid is already vaccinated and that just leaves the stupid, and you can't fix stupid. I'll no longer refute disinformation with accurate information, just point out they are liars and move on.
My goal is no longer to convince people to get vaccinated. Now my goal is to identify as many of them as possible so that I can do everything in my power to ensure they are never given a position of responsibility again.
I've already started asking those I do business with about their vaccination status. Unvaxxed or refuse to answer and I'm done with them. My mechanic got vaccinated. I had to switch to another (vaccinated) barber. I spoke at two of my local school board meetings in favor of masking the students (including my children) and requiring vaccinations of all staff. I let them know I would be filing a lawsuit if they failed to do either. Luckily they did both.
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
15 minutes ago, lifelive said:
It's not unvaxxed killing us and you did say if they are unvaxxed you make sure they are not in a position of power. Maybe because of your anger, you didn't express what you meant, as in your just referring to people who you spend your money with. Because it came off as if you're referring to your patients as well. I know plenty of unvaxxed individuals that didn't go to the hospitals, quarantined at home and they didn't kill anyone. So, to blame a group of people, who by the way didn't create this, is wrong. Maybe it is time for you to do something different because your anger is going to hurt someone.
I'm glad we agree that you did not read anything about wanting the unvaxxed to die or not get care. Your dishonesty in falsely claiming that is noted.
I did not say I make sure the unvaxxed are not in a position of power. Who do you think I am? I'm nobody really.
What I said is that I will do whatever _I_ can do to keep them from positions of responsibility. What that amounts to is voting aginst anti vaxxers and choosing not to spend my money for their goods or services.
And indeed the unvaxxed are killing us as I demonstrated with the links in a previous post in this discussion.
I'm so sorry. I had my first moment that you're describing the. other day. I was listening to. a segment on NPR about a. rural Minnesota hospital that is overrun. with Covid patients (as are all the hospitals) with a vaccine rate in the community <50%. They interviewed a woman. who was in the ICU, but is now recovering at home on supplemental oxygen, and she STILL refused to get the vaccine. It was that moment that I had the fleeting thought "Maybe it would be better for all of us if all those who choose not to get vaccinated just get sick and die." And that made me feel so sad, that I have come to this point, that I have given up hope for humanity.
I read your post, and I read it more than once. "Maybe it would be better for all of us if all those who choose not to get vaccinated just get sick and die." Heartless. Anything else you said doesn't even matter. Why even have such an evil thought. We all knew as nurses that we would encounter patients who "don't stick to the treatment" so why are some of acting brand new?? People been refusing vaccines, this isn't a new phenomenal. Are healthcare workers exhausted, absolutely. All of us are exhausted from this situation. But I have never had a fleeting thought about things being better if certain groups of people die due to them not doing what we feel they need to do. End of the discussion.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
Retirees are not going to save us. They may have good intentions but it won't help. It's too late! Too many are leaving to have enough retirees to cover the losses.
34 minutes ago, klone said:
Weird, I read PMFB's post and knew exactly that they meant people to whom they give their business and money, not patients.
I read it the same way. I won't do business with unvaccinated people if I have a choice. Of course that is not always possible, but if I can, I will avoid them.
When did “positions of power” become synonymous with “patient needing care”?
I think your scriptwriter needs to review the definition of “straw man fallacy” … emphasis on “fallacy”.
Are you not in a position of power when you deal with patients? So you're acting brand new now? Anytime you care for a patient, you're in a position of power. Newsflash, there are laws against Healthcare workers abusing their power when working with patients. Again, your anger is going to get someone hurt. As a healthcare provider it's important that you take care of that so that you don't find yourself doing unethical things.
Weird, I read PMFB's post and knew exactly that they meant people to whom they give their business and money, not patients.
You seriously think that those of you who have this strong hate against unvaccinated people won't eventually affect how you treat them as patients? Think again. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
3 minutes ago, lifelive said:
You seriously think that those of you who have this strong hate against unvaccinated people won't eventually affect how you treat them as patients? Think again. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.
I don't see it as hatred. I do see a lot of frustration and sadness. I also think most professionals can have boundaries which allow us to provide competent and caring for all patients. You said it before; we take care of all kinds of patients, many of whom are poorly adherent to recommendations. We still have to be professional at the end of the day.
You seriously think that those of you who have this strong hate against unvaccinated people won't eventually affect how you treat them as patients? Think again. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.
At least in terms of those I work with, we absolutely hate those who are out there spreading misinformation and the harm that causes, but we don't hate our unvaccinated patients even if they held or even still hold those views. Being ICU-level-sick is more than enough of a lesson and punishment. And actually, we root for them to get better probably than most patients. These are people who's family and social group is usually staunchly anti-vax, if they can survive and get back home, that anti-vax family/social group now has a strong dissenter in it's ranks.
But even for the most altruistic and angelic nurses there are still challenges.
As an example, we have a patient who took ivermectin while in the ICU, apparently it was in a care package that family brought in. For some reason, he choose to take a whole bottle of it at once. It's not all that unusual for critically-ill Covid patients to end up on CRRT, not all do though. It's somewhat predictable who will end up on CRRT, this particular guy appeared to have a decent chance of avoiding it, until he took the ivermectin he snuck in. He had a dialysis cath placed the next day, and was started on CRRT the day after that. We have a limited number of CRRT machines, and it's not first come first serve, whether you get one or not is largely based on age. So to start him on CRRT we took a patient in their 50's off CRRT (the ivermectin guy was in his 30's). The patient we took the CRRT away from died shortly after. Is it really your position that there's no understandable reason to hold anything against that patient?
Are you not in a position of power when you deal with patients? So you're acting brand new now? Anytime you care for a patient, you're in a position of power. Newsflash, there are laws against Healthcare workers abusing their power when working with patients. Again, your anger is going to get someone hurt. As a healthcare provider it's important that you take care of that so that you don't find yourself doing unethical things.
That's your opinion. It's well proven when people have a strong feeling about something, that it will consumer them. Having strong feelings about people who doesn't meet your standards will definitely affect how you treat them, even in the work place.
1 hour ago, MunoRN said:
At least in terms of those I work with, we absolutely hate those who are out there spreading misinformation and the harm that causes, but we don't hate our unvaccinated patients even if they held or even still hold those views. Being ICU-level-sick is more than enough of a lesson and punishment. And actually, we root for them to get better probably than most patients. These are people who's family and social group is usually staunchly anti-vax, if they can survive and get back home, that anti-vax family/social group now has a strong dissenter in it's ranks.
But even for the most altruistic and angelic nurses there are still challenges.
As an example, we have a patient who took ivermectin while in the ICU, apparently it was in a care package that family brought in. For some reason, he choose to take a whole bottle of it at once. It's not all that unusual for critically-ill Covid patients to end up on CRRT, not all do though. It's somewhat predictable who will end up on CRRT, this particular guy appeared to have a decent chance of avoiding it, until he took the ivermectin he snuck in. He had a dialysis cath placed the next day, and was started on CRRT the day after that. We have a limited number of CRRT machines, and it's not first come first serve, whether you get one or not is largely based on age. So to start him on CRRT we took a patient in their 50's off CRRT (the ivermectin guy was in his 30's). The patient we took the CRRT away from died shortly after. Is it really your position that there's no understandable reason to hold anything against that patient?
Of course there are going to be challenges, for all healthcare workers. But why would you want to hold anything against him??
I don't see it as hatred. I do see a lot of frustration and sadness. I also think most professionals can have boundaries which allow us to provide competent and caring for all patients. You said it before; we take care of all kinds of patients, many of whom are poorly adherent to recommendations. We still have to be professional at the end of the day.
I have seen a lot of professionals not hold their boundaries and that had a negative impact on patients. I myself been a victim of that in our healthcare. If we all were acting professional, people wouldn't say they have fleeting thoughts of certain groups of people getting sick and die. To call people stupid and say you had thought of certain groups dying off is not only unprofessional, but evil.
I'm glad we agree that you did not read anything about wanting the unvaxxed to die or not get care. Your dishonesty in falsely claiming that is noted.
I did not say I make sure the unvaxxed are not in a position of power. Who do you think I am? I'm nobody really.
What I said is that I will do whatever _I_ can do to keep them from positions of responsibility. What that amounts to is voting aginst anti vaxxers and choosing not to spend my money for their goods or services.
And indeed the unvaxxed are killing us as I demonstrated with the links in a previous post in this discussion.
I never agreed that I didn't read that. If you open your eyes, I clearly responded back to the post where the person said she had the fleeting thought that those who are unvaxxed should get sick and die. You read what you want. I just hope you get help for your hatred.
klone, MSN, RN
14,857 Posts
Weird, I read PMFB's post and knew exactly that they meant people to whom they give their business and money, not patients.