Your MOST Memorable (Good/Bad) COVID Moment | Nurses Week Contest

Nurses COVID Contest

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Month-Long Nurses Week Celebration Starts Today! Nurses Week Contest #5

This pandemic is different for everyone. As part of our 2021 Nurses Week celebration, we want you to share your Most Memorable (or Unforgettable) COVID Moments. This can be a personal story or one that was passed on to you. The Most Memorable Moment will win $100 Amazon Gift Card courtesy of allnurses Ebooks!

More Nurses Week Contests

Contest Rules

  1. Open to registered allnurses.com members only. (Free and quick to Register)
  2. Each story will be reviewed for originality.
  3. You must share your stories below.
  4. You can submit more than one story.
  5. One winner will be announced.

This contest is sponsored by allnurses Ebooks.

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Specializes in Physiology, CM, consulting, nsg edu, LNC, COB.

My story is small potatoes compared to some of these, and I have never been a weepy Wanda. A colleague was working ICU in the early days of one N95 mask per week, and did get sick. Fortunately not sick enough to be admitted to her own unit, but scary sick. She wrote a memoir of what it was like working in her unit, I edited it, and used a few connections to get it published in Nursing in Oct or Nov. I can’t read it without crying. Incredibly powerful, especially the story of patients and families dealing c death alone.
Meanwhile, my sweet husband, in his 80s c cardiac sequelae from PE a few years back ... He has been terrific about masking, sanitizing, staying in, and is in good shape for his age, but still. I am a bit more than a decade younger and for almost 40 years we’ve always known chances are he will die before me, but all of a sudden I found it really a possibility, and knowing he would be alone if it was. Staying in it was hard to find a place that I could go and sob in terror without scaring him, and it was hard times.
Meanwhile, I had to have ortho surgery and the last place in the world I wanted to be was a hospital. More terror. Painful, painful rehab, fortunately at home since I totally refused to go to a SNF. Then one night after he tenderly helped me out of bed, so painful, I found myself just pressing his hand to my face and bawling my eyes out. It was just too much. Couldn’t hold it in anymore.

Now we’ve just had the first overnight visit from a beloved grandchild in more than a year. She didn’t quite get why I was sniffling as I hugged her. I told her it was the pollen. 

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Specializes in Emergency Room.

We had a patient in ICU 2, and at the time, we had a no visitor policy regardless of Covid status.  The patient in ICU said his wife wanted to visit at the window.  Later, I went into ICU 1 to see my other patient, and she had some dementia.  She was mumbling about people being at the window and I just patted her hand and tried to re-orient her to where she was, etc.  When I went back in to see my patient in ICU 2, he was laughing and laughing.  He said that his wife came to the window and decided to flash him quick as a joke.  As it turns out, she was at the wrong window and flashed my poor little lady with dementia instead.   I still laugh to this day every time I look out the window in ICU 1.  

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I worked in the covid ICU.  Obviously the mortality rate in the covid ICU was insanely high and anybody that was admitted was not expected to make it.  Every shift was a *** show and I had so many patients nothing really sets one apart from the other except one.  The day before this patient was admitted, the doctor told me that they did an audit of the code blues in the covid units at a different hospital, and not a single person survived after coding.  0 out of like 2,000 patients who coded survived.  The next day I'm getting an admit from the ER.  An 89 year old from the nursing home, was found unresponsive without a pulse.  The nurse at the LTC facility started CPR and when the EMT's arrived they took over and were able to get her back.  They brought her to the ER, tested her for COVID and she was positive.  They were going to admit her to the covid floor, but she coded again and they started CPR again and intubated her with the second round of CPR.  She was going into pulseless vtach, so they started an amiodarone drip.  She was on 100% fio2 on the vent with 14 of peep so she was also on nimbex, fentanyl, and versed drips.  She came up to me and her blood pressure started dropping so I had to start Levophed.  The lung doctor came in to see her and said how is she doing?  I said "well she coded twice, she's on 5 drips and the ventilator, and she's a full code."  The doctor shook his head and said "how old is she?  89?  She's not going to make it."  The cardiologist went in to do a consult, came out of the room and said "I don't think she's going to make it."  The hospitalist saw her and said "Is she a full code?  Can we talk to family about making her a DNR?  She isn't going to make it."  Little did they know, I'm no quitter.  I busted my *** to get her her convalescent plasma, remdesevir, and dexamethasone less than an hour after she arrived.  I drew the blood cultures and gave all of her first dose antibiotics less than 2 hours after her arrival.  I took care of the lady for the next 3 days.  Sad part was, when I would do a sedation vacation, she would track but wouldn't follow commands.  The doctors were thinking stroke, I was thinking encephalopathy.  We did an EEG, it showed encaphalopathy.  It was my last day and I was about to have 4 days off.  When I came back, I opened the door and peeked in her room.  She was sitting up, on a regular nasal cannula at 3L, eating her breakfast and watching TV.  Hold up.  WOW!?  This lady coded twice while having covid, and will live to talk about it?  The case manager said, yeah she's going home tomorrow.  I was so happy I was able to talk with her.  I asked her if she remembered me coming into her room every 10 minutes waking her up when she was on the breathing machine, she said she does remember.  The next day I got her discharge paperwork, helped her to the wheelchair because transport was hers to take her home and when we exited the room staff was lining the halls of the covid ICU and everybody started clapping.  She was the first covid patient at our hospital who coded (twice) and didn't die.

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Specializes in Education, FP, LNC, Forensics, ED, OB.

We have our winner!!

Nurses Week is over and most of the contests are now closed. A big THANK YOU to everyone who participated in the, Your MOST Memorable (Good/Bad) COVID Moment | Nurses Week Contest Nurses Week Contest.

These "moments" in your lives were precious, difficult, and tugged at the hearts. It was difficult for us to get through some of these stories. But, we were able to select the WINNER.

??DRUM ROLL PLEASE??

JBMmom

Congratulations JBMmom!  Watch for a Private Message with instructions on how to retrieve your prize.  Enjoy!

You can find JBMmom's post on page 1 of this thread.

While this contest has come to an end, you can still participate in the final contest that will remain open until June 4.  The allnurses Nurses Month Article Contest - What Would Florence Nightingale Say if She Could See Us Now?  has the largest prizes of all.  5 winners will each receive a $200 Amazon Gift Card.  

Get your article(s) submitted now. The sooner you submit your article, the sooner others will be reading and being inspired by your article, and the more views and likes you will receive. Who knows...You could be one of the 5 lucky prize winners.

Again, CONGRATULATIONS, JBMmom!!

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Specializes in ED, Tele, MedSurg, ADN, Outpatient, LTC, Peds.

Congrats! Well deserved!

 You had me bawling my eyes out reading  your story!

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Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.
On 5/18/2021 at 8:50 AM, sirI said:

Again, CONGRATULATIONS, JBMmom!!

Thank you so much and thank you to everyone else that posted stories. I know that this year has been a roller coaster for so many of us, and I was happy and sad to read the posts by other nurses that have been through so much. Here's hoping that we will never face another year like the last one. I'm grateful to work within a community of such wonderful nurses that work so hard for patients and families facing many challenges. 

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