TT IS

That they are, they're going on 4.5 months without pay but a lot offered to pick up shifts at our covid test sites or pick up shifts for facility entrance screening.

True, I mean there are some settings that covid exposure is very minimal. For example, our GI Lab and our Outpatient Operating Room facility require all patients to get a covid test prior to the day of surgery. Any patient with a positive test are not brought in to the facility, they are contacted via phone and then rescheduled. There's a few theories that point to HTN causing a higher affinity for Covid to bind to the ACE-2 receptor sites as well as higher ACE-2 expression. Other studies found that those with HTN have a hightened inflammatory response with covid compared to patients without HTN. One study found this (link at the end). "patients with hypertension had significantly higher neutrophil counts, neutrophil-lymphocyte, alanine transaminase, creatinine and fibrinogen than those without hypertension. In addition, the activated partial prothrombin time in hypertensive patients is significantly lower than that in nonhypertensive patients. This data suggested that COVID-19 patients with hypertension tended to show more severe inflammation and organ damage than COVID-19 patients without hypertension, which may lead to a poor prognosis" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7261650/

Well, employee expectations vary from institution to institution. None of our RNs who worked ay outpatient clincs in which their facility was temporarily closed due to covid were forced to work inpatient, they were put on temporary leave until their clinics re-opebed (which they still aren't). All those outpatient RNs were put on leave without pay but they could use their PTO bank if they wanted. Our organization only asked those RNs if they would like to go to inpatient temporarily to help with surge capacity, none of those RNs were forced or told they had to.

I don't understand how your organization are forcing you to do this. My organization sent out mass emails to every RN who does not work on the floor or to RNs who worked at outpatient clinics that had temporarily closed asking if they would like to fill needed shifts on the floor to compensate for surge overflow. They also asked OR RNs if they would like to be cross trained in the ICU while elective surgical cases were put on hold so they could retain some form of income until surgical cases got back on track. If you never signed any employee expectations guidelines saying you agree to float to other areas when needed than I can't see how they can force you. If you think they would terminate you for refusal, I would either seek council for legal advice or I would simply apply for a temporary leave of absence and return later down the road.

As more data and studies come out on Covid-19 and those with underlying health issue emerge, is it wise for Healthcare workers who have pre-existing comorbidites to be taking care of Covid positive patients? For example, a new RN hire in the ER I work at will be starting this upcoming week. I had a chance to orient him and he asked me about his thoughts on Healthcare workers with underlying conditions and caring for Covid patients. He told me he is a diabetic and also has HTN. I'm sure there are many other Healthcare workers with such conditions and are also caring for Covid patients Is it wise that this new hire should resign, especially with the "twindemic" quickly approaching? He already accepted the position and signed all the HR paper work. I also figure if he were to resign during the first week of employment, that may also put him at risk for not being not eligible for rehire in the future. Thoughts?

If consolidating your loans or going forward with a lawsuit is not possible and you still are at odds on what to do...you may want to look into RN military service to pay off all students loans. Joining the Airforce or Army reserves as a RN and fulfilling your years of service required, the military will pay off all your student federal loans. You will be a medical officer fulfilling RN and military job duties to servicemen and their families. Greay sign on bonuses, officer pay and federal student loan repayment.