Share Your COVID-19 Stories Contest | Nurses Week

LBI · Apr 29, 2020

The pt was having chest pain "You need to to go to the ED" The pt states, I can't go to the ED everything is closed. "If you are having chest pain you can go to the ED, THEY ARE OPEN , please wear a mask and wash your hands frequently" The pt says, Are you sure they are open? "Yes dad, I'm a NURSE , PLEASE GO TO THE ED NOW" Recent conversation with my 80 year old dad in A Fib .

Jeana18, MSN, DNP, RN, APRN, NP · Apr 29, 2020

2 hours into a 12-hour shift, a smiling, cheerful, and embracing patient is received into my room BIBA from home by EMS. She is positive and optimistic on what is actually facing her right now.

Intake complete. She is made comfortable and jokes and stories are shared. But, little does she understand, her oxygen saturation is 65-70% on room air. She is still smiling. I embrace her positivity and attempt to educate. She becomes frightened, but remains somewhat stoic. She smiles still.

2 hours pass, she is still smiling but no improvement. She is sure she will get through -- she questions the plan of care, reassurance is given. She smiles and embraces my hand, squeezes it tight and says, "I know I got this. I know I do. What is meant to happen will be."

1 hour passes, decisions must be made. She is unable to breathe comfortably, she knows she needs the tube, but she questions it; she begins to take our conversations into consideration. She is a fighter. Anesthesia and RT is at the bedside. I am by her side, donned in PPE, appearing as a stranger but yet feeling like the only one who knows her well.

Her request, while anesthesia is at the head of the bed, vent at the bedside; "I just want to take to my children." I stop, despite the urgency, pick up the room telephone, dial the number -- instantly her children are there. Her embracing smile has returned. She grasps my hand tight. She relaxes her muscles and looks me in my eyes and the glimmer shines through; her positivity hasn't left.

She nods as I tell her "everything will be okay, I'm here by your side." She smiles one last time and whispers, "I know I got this. It will all be alright. Bless you!"

Lovely_Lyssa33 · Apr 29, 2020

At screening desk. In walks stinky man missing many teeth.

Man: what can I take for a busted ear drum?

Me: sir we cannot give out medical advice. However- cuts me off

Man: just tell me what to buy at Walmart

Coworker: sir we cannot give out advice. Check in to er - speaks over coworker

Man: I'm not sitting up here for 2 hours to get something Ajax can't take off. *Walks out*

We had no patients at the time.

medicrn161616, RN · Apr 29, 2020

On Easter Sunday a patient that was being treated in our hospital that has switched over to only taking care of COVID-19 patients was able to enjoy watching his grandkids hunt for Easter eggs via one of the iPads we have designated for patients. His daughter says to the nurse before the hunt, “we are practicing social distancing and we are all 6 feet apart.” She obviously wanted to make that clear. He was so happy to be able to share in that moment with his family! Another elderly patient got to speak to his wife on FaceTime and he was so tickled by the technology. Funny thing was the first thing he told her he missed was her lemonade! I guess it it the little things we take for granted and miss the most! It saddens me that patients can’t be with their families when they need them the most, but glad we have this technology to help keep them connected.

vmbennett, BSN · May 2, 2020

The fear of dying alone is nearly universal, a fact of which anyone who has taken care of a critically ill patient is acutely aware. One aspect of the Covid-19 pandemic that has been particularly difficult is that instead of our usual promise that we will do everything we can to keep him alive until you get here, we find ourselves telling families that because of hospital policy, we cannot allow visitors at this time. My patient’s wife arrives at the emergency department at 1:30 a.m., despite having been told she would not be allowed to see her husband. I go to meet her, and we discuss her husband’s continued decline. Unfortunately, in the middle of the conversation, a Code Blue rings from the overhead speaker for a patient in the ICU. I step away and find myself entering her husband’s room, where CPR is already in progress. After 90 minutes of CPR, my patient still has not regained a sustained pulse. One of the nurses in the hallway has been in contact with the wife throughout the process and has informed her of the death; she now has the wife on FaceTime so that she can see her husband. When she recognizes him in the distorted image, she lets out a wail of sorrow. She is saying her final goodbyes when I have to excuse myself from the room: another patient with Covid-19 is deteriorating a few rooms over. image.png.7e99cc5a33935c84415d648a33873894.png

Stayce · May 4, 2020

The reality and mortality of the virus has hit close to home. I live in Syracuse, NY and work in Urgent Care. Along side me I have scared fellow co-workers, medical assistants and LPN’s. In 3 short day’s the urgent care we know will be basically turned into covid testing centers. This past weekend I worked, I looked outside and seen so many folks driving and out and about, like nothing ever happened. I don’t know why some people don’t get the gravity of this disease. My fellow MA had to watch her beloved uncle age 66, slowly die from the Covid disease via FaceTime this same weekend while all the other family members were watching in desperation and heart break, his wife trying to wipe the tears from her dying husbands face as he slowly passes on. Her uncle was healthy, no medical conditions what so ever. When I see all of these people out and about I just wish they would realize just how serious this truly is.

Peachez1, ADN, BSN · May 5, 2020

There are so many stories out there regarding COVID-19. My story is a simple one.

I am a Med-Surge nurse that was floated up to the COVID-ICU during our peak time. I was there when one of my patients was whisked up from ER to the ICU. This patient was quickly intubated. I saw how the staff calmly explained what was about to happen and tried their very best to ensure that he/she was calm before it happened. It was a beautiful thing that they did for him/her.

I was also working in the ICU, two weeks later, when the same patient was extubated in the morning time. Around supper time that day, I asked if he/she wanted to call their family. I was able to reach out and do a family conference call. His/her family member's cried with relief and joy. We all prayed together. We all cried together. The best thing I was able to hear was the patient tell his family members "This thing tried to kick my *** - but you know what? I'm not going to let it. I'm going to keep on fighting and praying and I'm going to win."

Later, when I was getting ready to go home the patient thanked me for allowing the time to speak with his/her family. They said it gave them the strength to carry on. For me, it was the least I could do.

Warm fuzzies I call them. I take good care of my patients and it warms my heart when I can do that one little thing that means the world to them.

NurseJay22 · May 5, 2020

It’s 90 degrees outside and my friend coughed ONE TIME. She is showing no other symptoms but swears she needs to get tested. She pulls into the drive up mobile testing and of course they turn her around. She calls me and says “I’m sitting in my car with heater on full blast and I’m going back in 30 minutes”

I tell her “you’ll pass out of heat stroke before corona gets a chance. Please. Go home”

Grant Tee · May 6, 2020

So this guy about 46 years of age decided to go to GEORGIA for some fun time not knowing the coronavirus was actively out there. He was like am going to have fun no corona is going to stop me at all.Besides my immune system is Strong.

A week after that outing he tested positive for covid-19.

Got admittedly the hospital and stayed there over two weeks. His lungs had adventitious breathe sounds. He used this time to really think about his actions because it looked like he was going to make it out alive.

Several days later after praying and thinking positive he was well enough to be sent home but on two weeks quarantine. After the two weeks he go tested and was negative.

Moral of the story no your immune system is not so strong that you can’t catch a sickness. Still take the necessary precautions and be safe always.

Heather Pressdee RN · May 6, 2020

I work in a nursing home where we are on lock down from COVID, the patient has on hospice from cervical cancer and it had progressed quickly. She only had hours to live and her family did not want to come in with the fear of getting COVID. During her last few hours I held her hand made her as comfortable as possible and FaceTime with the family. While she took her last breathe I held her hand and ensured her that she was OK.

RealNurseMom, BSN · May 8, 2020

In just a few days, my unit transformed into a 20 bed ICU to care for critically ill covid patients. While at work I’ve been too busy saving lives to worry but while I’m at home I worry about bringing the dreaded virus home to my husband and children. At the same time I suffer from feelings of guilt. Guilt, for not doing more overtime and helping out more or mom guilt for not spending enough time with my kids and not focusing enough on their homeschooling.

Initially we weren’t as hard hit as other hospitals in the area. I would avert my gaze when walking past the vents that weren’t in use because I knew I couldn’t handle counting them while knowing that other hospitals were already running out. I was comforted by the fact that my hospital had loaned some vents out and I knew in that in just a short while the vents would all be in use by our patients.

When things were real bad in some hospitals medical teams didn’t have time to call family members. I was getting messages from friends/family “do you know anyone who works in _ hospital that can check on my father? he’s intubated and we would love if someone can have the team to call us” My fellow nurse friends have been amazing, visiting patients they don’t even know. Many days I leave early for my shift so that I can do the same.

The pandemic has displayed the best and worst of humanity. A women, with a poor prognosis for her cancer, who requested DNI/DNI so that “I don’t take up a vent from someone who has a chance to live”, she passed comfortably with her nurse holding her hand after her daughter spent the day visiting.

Using donated iPads in our ICU, my coworkers and I have been spending extra time in covid + patient rooms, FaceTiming family of intubated, sedated, critically ill patients so that their families can tell them how much they love and miss them.

Working during this pandemic requires true teamwork and my coworkers have been phenomenal. It wouldn’t be possible without them. I can always count on them- managing sedation/pressors/ paralytics outside the room while the primary RN is inside, helping with proning patients, intubations and codes.

While others, from the comfort of their homes, make offenseful videos full of misinformation how “nurses in nyc are killing patients”

During nurses week I want to thank all the nurses out there (especially the RNs that were redeployed from other areas) for continuously saving lives, caring and advocating for your patients even under the worst circumstances.

I also want to thank the NPs out there, who I’ve learned so much from, for your unwavering commitment to your patients, your knowledge and teamwork.