I'm Done

[PMFB-RN]

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.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

2 hours ago, katherine100 said:

MDs commit more suicides.

Not in our ICU

[klone, MSN, RN]

This article is timely. I subscribe to The Atlantic so not sure if y'all will get a paywall. I will try to quote some relevant snippets.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/08/health-care-workers-compassion-fatigue-vaccine-refusers/619716/

 

Quote

On social media, I’ve been seeing sentiments that I never thought I’d see anyone express in a public forum. People who choose to be unvaccinated should not be offered lung transplants. What if people with COVID-19 who didn’t get the vaccine have to wait in the Emergency Department until everyone else is seen?Should unvaccinated patients just be turned away?

These are harsh, angry feelings. And some of the people giving voice to them are doctors.

 

Quote

A lot of us went to work every day because the world needs to keep turning, and in that time, we were the ones turning it. Many others left medicine. One reason I didn’t was that humans needed help and I could provide it. But I also kept working because I needed to believe that, if I was ever in danger, other humans would come help me. Our comparative advantage as humans is that we can take care of one another and overcome adversity together. I did my part week after week, month after month.

Finally, in the depths of Winter, during the week of my birthday, I received my first vaccine shot. Science had brought us a solution, and we could finally see the end of all those months of fear, exhaustion, and sacrifice.

But that’s not what happened. COVID-19 hasn’t ended. Instead, infection rates are going up. The Delta variant has taken hold, and hospitals are filling up again. But this time the suffering seems different, because it is avoidable. Optional. A choice.

Quote

“What makes me the maddest,” one of my doctor friends told me, “is that these people will reject science right until the second they need everything I have to keep them alive, and then they feel that they can come to our door and be entitled to that help and that hard work.” This friend is characterizing the inconsistency in the behavior she sees in people declining a vaccine but then demanding medical care based on the same science. That inconsistency feels, to her and to other dedicated medical professionals trying to survive this pandemic, very much like dishonesty.

 

 

[Robmoo, ADN, BSN, RN]

Darwin fixes stupid.  We just don't have enough Darwin to fix all of the stupid.  From the sample of Darwin that we've had in the last year, I'm not looking forward to more Darwin.

[macawake, MSN]

On 10/27/2021 at 11:33 PM, heron said:

Maybe … although this seems to be the antivaxxers talking point du jour since the same “argument” is being presented in more than one thread lately. They conveniently ignore the data regarding the significant differences in both mortality and morbidity between vaccinated and unvaccinated pooulations. So… I have a hard time taking such rants particularly seriously. Seems more like attempted bullying to me.

Ka-ching!

Several posts accusing OP of being angry and hateful. Most by new members or posters who don’t participate regularly in other than the Covid subforum. 

Not one iota of compassion expressed for the things OP described. Nurses working 12-16 hours for months on end, nurses working so many hours that they lose touch with their families and support systems, not getting enough time off to take a mental breather and recharge, young nurses who are heartbroken to see so many people die shift after shift, and nurses committing suicide. All that and these posters don’t appear to empathize at all. 

All they want to do is try to pick a fight with OP and twist his words around and outright lie about what he actually posted. The hatred accusations are aggression. I’m not even convinced that all of them are nurses. If they were and had worked on Covid floors/ICUs for any length of time, they’d understand OP.

I’ve never met OP but we’ve both posted on this forum for some time. From previous posts I have no doubt that this is a knowledgeable and professional nurse, and I would be happy to have OP as a nurse if I’d needed one. Even if I had been unvaccinated. (Which of course I’m not). 

[MunoRN, RN]

Advocating against avoidable harm to others doesn't go against nursing ethics, in fact it's a core ethical expectation of any nurse.

One of the more prominent examples these days of people causing harm to others is the spreading of anti-vaccine misinformation which then takes away a person's right to make an informed decision about vaccintion.

One of the more common misinformation themes is that the vaccine doesn't inhibit the infection it only treats the symptoms.  The vaccines don't actually treat the symptoms, they reduce the severity of the infection by halting the replication of the virus, which also reduces it's ability to transmit to others.

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

On 10/20/2021 at 7:12 AM, PMFB-RN said:

My hospital is in Minnesota. Over the weekend I was told by the house supervisor over the weekend that there were six available ICU beds in the state. SIX! for a whole state.

    That's like two car accidents away from there being no beds. I don't know what I would do if someone I loved was in an accident and needed and ICU bed but couldn't get one because of the unvaxxed and their choice to clog up ICUs. 

I'm in that region as well. An acquaintance of mine's brother was in a car accident recently.  They had to search for awhile to find an available bed. There was nothing in a five state radius. Eventually there was a discharge in a local hospital and he did get a bed. I have no clue of course if that discharge was just a transfer to another floor or a death but either way it took some bed management to even get him admitted.

[toomuchbaloney]

40 minutes ago, kbrn2002 said:

I'm in that region as well. An acquaintance of mine's brother was in a car accident recently.  They had to search for awhile to find an available bed. There was nothing in a five state radius. Eventually there was a discharge in a local hospital and he did get a bed. I have no clue of course if that discharge was just a transfer to another floor or a death but either way it took some bed management to even get him admitted.

I'm in Alaska.  The unvaccinated have this isolated state in a real pickle relative to hospital beds and staffing resources. We are acutely aware of their freedumb to gamble with the health and general welfare of the entire state. 

[SmilingBluEyes]

When people die because critical access to ICU/ED and other necessary services are made unavailable on a continuing basis, it is only a matter of time before SOMETHING will give. Lawsuits will happen. I would not blame anyone for that.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

Those who engage in high risk personal behavior like obesity, smoking,  etc are the moral equivalent of seat belt refusers in that thier behavior isn't contagious and they themselves will bear most of the cost.

    The unvaxxed are the moral equivalent of drunk drivers in that thier behavior puts the rest of us at increased risk.

[guest1168940]

I am so very very sorry for what you have been through. Your efforts and extreme dedication to be a nurse and not just quit are amazing. I am praying every day for you and other staff working on the front lines. I am in a clinic but worked in ER and ICU for 30 years in very busy stressful units but not anywhere near what you guys have done I wish I could do two weeks for you but cant walk well. Thank you again and that we all care about you I promise …

[nurse1985]

On 10/27/2021 at 5:13 PM, lifelive said:

Sir/Ma'am, 

My comprehensive is at 100%. You  literally stated you are done with people who are unvaccinated and refuse to say their vaccination status.  You also stated you want to make sure those who refuse to get vaccinated are never in a position of responsibility.  There are also other people who responded and said they should just die. What exactly are you trying to say? I know what I read and I know I how to comprehend. I get paid for a living to decipher what people say. To say they are stupid,  to say you are done with them, to say you will make sure they never been in a position of power or have responsibilities means what? If you say you're done with someone,  that's pretty much saying you're not going to provide care, and if you do, it's going to be subpar.  So don't try to tell me anything about what was or wasn't said. 

This conversation should've been over 20 messages ago.  It's "comprehension" not "comprehensive" especially since you "get paid to decipher what people say." You both believe differently just accept it as such and move on.

[ladycody, BSN, RN]

On 10/27/2021 at 6:13 PM, lifelive said:

Sir/Ma'am, 

My comprehensive is at 100%. You  literally stated you are done with people who are unvaccinated and refuse to say their vaccination status.  You also stated you want to make sure those who refuse to get vaccinated are never in a position of responsibility.  There are also other people who responded and said they should just die. What exactly are you trying to say? I know what I read and I know I how to comprehend. I get paid for a living to decipher what people say. To say they are stupid,  to say you are done with them, to say you will make sure they never been in a position of power or have responsibilities means what? If you say you're done with someone,  that's pretty much saying you're not going to provide care, and if you do, it's going to be subpar.  So don't try to tell me anything about what was or wasn't said. 

1). Did you mean your comprehension?

2). The OP was saying he/she was done with the unvaccinated in her life... personal life...as evidenced by the examples given.  That does NOT equate to providing substandard care on the job.  Ridiculous assumption.  There are many from all walks of life that we intentionally distance ourselves from for a variety of reasons...but that does not mean they won't receive excellent care when in our hospitals.  

Apparently you DID need clarification on what was and wasn't said because your comprehensive seemed subpar in this particular instance?