#nursing in time of covid

[halorvic]

[puppyeared]

man

[toxooz]

Your art has made me say "i think I hauve covid" out loud today. Not even consciously. Just happened. I feel you should know

[thunderheadfred]

I’m gonna brag on myself for a minute because my self-confidence has been shit lately (thanks winter, for your annual crushing blow to my ego!) but I am, in fact, really good at language acquisition. Like, heretofore it was kind of a stupid superpower that I had never once thought to use for Good

which is why, when I had some kind of visitation from The Lort Almightee last summer and They were like "heyy how about you do something to tangibly improve the place where you live. and also start supporting tribal sovereignty. immediately"

I was like (falling out of my chair, trembling) "uhhhhhh I can learn languages weirdly fast??" and lo, God threw the newly-created UMN Dakota Language major directly in my face and Commanded, "GET TO WORK BITCH"

[chicago-geniza]

This Call the Midwife episode reminded me that nurse af yidish is kranken-shvester. I love how many languages do just call nurses "Sickness Sister" or "Medicine Sister"

[stpansy]

i went to the dark spooky evil hospital and the beautiful nurse there drank all my blood and kissed my forehead so sweetly. if you even care

[renee-mariposa]

I’m ready to walk out of my job.

The last straw was, this week they cracked down on overtime. This was the last straw for two reasons:

1. Normally (pre-COVID), our patient volumes are lowest in summer. This year, we’re having winter-flu-season patient volumes (flu season is always the busiest time in the hospital). We now have the second busiest ER in the metro, seeing hundreds of patients per day (we’ve reached a thousand per day several times this year!!!) in a 25-bed ER. This is coupled with the fact we’re operating at 30-50% (a third to a half!!) normal nurse staffing, and have been doing so since 2021. There isn’t a staff member in the hospital who is twiddling their thumbs for a second. I heard tonight that the hospital is trying to end all their contracted labor early (and I assume we’re relying heavily on contracted nurses to fill staffing shortages!)

2. Because of this patient load vs low staffing, it is literally impossible for us to finish all the tasks we are assigned each day. But we still have to meet our metrics and are chastised/penalized when we don’t meet them! Worsening the situation: instead of asking each ‘problem’ staffer why they’re always clocking out late, my department management emailed all the problem people with “suggestions on how to leave on time”. Suggestions that are bullshit because they don’t address the actual reason the person gets overtime consistently.

So this whole perfect storm is coming together to convince me that corporate expects us to work off the clock. Which I’m about 95% sure is fucking illegal.

[kayvsworld]

i always forget i have Healthcare System Anxiety until i have to interact with The Healthcare System and immediately just start screaming internally for days

[halorvic]

The danger is clear and present: COVID isn’t merely a respiratory illness; it’s a multi-dimensional threat impacting brain function, attacking almost all of the body’s organs, producing elevated risks of all kinds, and weakening our ability to fight off other diseases. Reinfections are thought to produce cumulative risks, and Long COVID is on the rise. Unfortunately, Long COVID is now being considered a long-term chronic illness — something many people will never fully recover from. Dr. Phillip Alvelda, a former program manager in DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office that pioneered the synthetic biology industry and the development of mRNA vaccine technology, is the founder of Medio Labs, a COVID diagnostic testing company. He has stepped forward as a strong critic of government COVID management, accusing health agencies of inadequacy and even deception. Alvelda is pushing for accountability and immediate action to tackle Long COVID and fend off future pandemics with stronger public health strategies. Contrary to public belief, he warns, COVID is not like the flu. New variants evolve much faster, making annual shots inadequate. He believes that if things continue as they are, with new COVID variants emerging and reinfections happening rapidly, the majority of Americans may eventually grapple with some form of Long COVID. Let’s repeat that: At the current rate of infection, most Americans may get Long COVID.

[...]

LP: A recent JAMA study found that US adults with Long COVID are more prone to depression and anxiety – and they’re struggling to afford treatment. Given the virus’s impact on the brain, I guess the link to mental health issues isn’t surprising. PA: There are all kinds of weird things going on that could be related to COVID’s cognitive effects. I’ll give you an example. We’ve noticed since the start of the pandemic that accidents are increasing. A report published by TRIP, a transportation research nonprofit, found that traffic fatalities in California increased by 22% from 2019 to 2022. They also found the likelihood of being killed in a traffic crash increased by 28% over that period. Other data, like studies from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, came to similar conclusions, reporting that traffic fatalities hit a 16-year high across the country in 2021. The TRIP report also looked at traffic fatalities on a national level and found that traffic fatalities increased by 19%. LP: What role might COVID play? PA: Research points to the various ways COVID attacks the brain. Some people who have been infected have suffered motor control damage, and that could be a factor in car crashes. News is beginning to emerge about other ways COVID impacts driving. For example, in Ireland, a driver’s COVID-related brain fog was linked to a crash that killed an elderly couple. Damage from COVID could be affecting people who are flying our planes, too. We’ve had pilots that had to quit because they couldn’t control the airplanes anymore. We know that medical events among U.S. military pilots were shown to have risen over 1,700% from 2019 to 2022, which the Pentagon attributes to the virus.

[...]

LP: You’ve criticized the track record of the CDC and the WHO – particularly their stubborn denial that COVID is airborne. PA: They knew the dangers of airborne transmission but refused to admit it for too long. They were warned repeatedly by scientists who studied aerosols. They instituted protections for themselves and for their kids against airborne transmission, but they didn’t tell the rest of us to do that.

[...]

LP: How would you grade Biden on how he’s handled the pandemic? PA: I’d give him an F. In some ways, he fails worse than Trump because more people have actually died from COVID on his watch than on Trump’s, though blame has to be shared with Republican governors and legislators who picked ideological fights opposing things like responsible masking, testing, vaccination, and ventilation improvements for partisan reasons. Biden’s administration has continued to promote the false idea that the vaccine is all that is needed, perpetuating the notion that the pandemic is over and you don’t need to do anything about it. Biden stopped the funding for surveillance and he stopped the funding for renewing vaccine advancement research. Trump allowed 400,000 people to die unnecessarily. The Biden administration policies have allowed more than 800,000 to 900,000 and counting.

[...]

LP: The situation with bird flu is certainly getting more concerning with the CDC confirming that a third person in the U.S. has tested positive after being exposed to infected cows. PA: Unfortunately, we’re repeating many of the same mistakes because we now know that the bird flu has made the jump to several species. The most important one now, of course, is the dairy cows. The dairy farmers have been refusing to let the government come in and inspect and test the cows. A team from Ohio State tested milk from a supermarket and found that 50% of the milk they tested was positive for bird flu viral particles.

[...]

PA: There’s a serious risk now in allowing the virus to freely evolve within the cow population. Each cow acts as a breeding ground for countless genetic mutations, potentially leading to strains capable of jumping to other species. If any of those countless genetic experiments within each cow prove successful in developing a strain transmissible to humans, we could face another pandemic – only this one could have a 58% death rate. Did you see the movie “Contagion?” It was remarkably accurate in its apocalyptic nature. And that virus only had a 20% death rate. If the bird flu makes the jump to human-to-human transition with even half of its current lethality, that would be disastrous.

[very-lost-hobbit]

I have covid :(

[parkeryangs]

the problem with bed alarms is that they're easy as fuck to set off. and deactivating them is apparently like defusing a bomb idk

[dullahandyke]

Looks at covid statistics and gets surprised when they are upsetting

[ohello0]

The (white) oncologist on my granny’s care team saying covid is just like the flu and that thank goodness it’s not like it was a few years ago,,,,,, get us tf outta here

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

good evening. i have just woken up. in case anyone was wondering about the health of the most special princess in the world (me) i overslept for my drive-up PCR test but have lost my sense of taste again. it got me twice boys

[hussyknee]

I saw someone saying that 2012–2017 felt a lot longer than 2017–2022 and holy fuck they're right.

Probably because 2020–2022 has felt like one long never-ending year and it's still not over.

[adrinktostopyourthirst]

I officially have covid and do not feel sexy at all, but I have time to write now so who knows I might post something