RuralNurse

This time is really difficult for so many healthcare workers. We are being bombarded on every side, stressed to our max and overwhelmed. We feel like we are not doing enough. Keep your chin up. One of the best pieces of advice I was given was take it one step at a time. Use the prioritization skills they taught you in school. Focus on one task at a time, work quickly and effectively to tackle that task then move on to the next. Keep something with you that you can jot down notes for charting later. Our ER nurse will put a piece of tape from her knee to her hip and keep notes when things are crazy.( this won’t necessarily work while in Covid gear) Let yourself cry. When you cry it releases endorphins. Don’t try to keep everything bottled up, it will only make your stress build. Be honest with yourself, your coworkers and the house supervisor when you are struggling and need help or you can’t take any more patients at the moment. Where I work we assign patients based on acuity. We all take turns with admits. To avoid one nurse getting several admits while the others haven’t admitted any. On night shift we pull together and tackle the admit, each taking a certain part (meds, initial interview, ect) to lessen the load. Right now I doubt there is a single healthcare worker that isn’t overwhelmed and struggling to fight against Covid. Just remember we are in this together. You’ve got this.