GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — You've seen the images: West Michigan nurses working on the front lines as COVID-19 hits our community.
“The first week or so there were a lot of tears." Patti Deline is a nurse manager for Spectrum Health's COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit. She remembers the concerns from her nurses when they started seeing their first patients, "Do we have enough PPE? Do we have enough things to support us? How are we going to take care of these patients when we don't really know how to treat this disease? There was a lot of anxiousness and uneasiness the first few weeks."
And there were times when even she had to give herself a pep talk, "'Patty you know what you're doing take a deep breath all you got to do is care about people and we're going to get through this.'"
Melissa Jones is one of the COVID-19 ICU nurses. She cares for patients who are the most at risk of dying, "Those are the hard days. We make these connections with families over iPads or over telephone and we have to have them make decisions without them being there."
In addition to the ICU, there are nurses working the COVID-19 Unit.
"I really do try to make some time to sit down and talk to my patient as much as possible at least once during the day because during this time they are not allowed to have visitors." Caitlyn Hill is only a year and a half into her nursing career. She never expected her first experiences to be a pandemic or comforting a dying patient, “Me and the assigned nurse were in the room with her holding her hands and comforting her and she did take her last breath holding our hands. It was very sad."
These nurses have learned a lot over the past few months include the fact that this virus is tough to beat. "These patients are super sick. They are a very wide range of age and they sometimes can go downhill very quickly." Lauren Nichol is a nurse manager for Spectrum's COVID-19 Unit. "It's definitely very high stress but this team has been amazing with working with one another and we've really been able to lift each other up and help each other get through this."
There are moments that do just that. Like the days they celebrate a patient getting off the ventilator and one step closer to going home. "We've had a handful of wins and we hold on to those wins and they keep us going on the days that are hard," says Deline.
But this job isn't just stressful for the nurses, it's also stressful for their families who know that everyday their loved one is being exposed to a deadly virus. "My husband really started to freak out. I'd get a cough or something and he'd say you need to get tested," says Melissa Jones.
They make sure to do what's necessary to keep their families safe no matter what it takes, "My son greets me at the door with a bottle of Lysol and he sprays off my sneakers with Lysol when I get home."
And they are grateful to everyone who is helping them do the same.
From protecting them, “Shout out to my friends at Steelcase. Thank you so much these are so soft and comfortable." To feeding them, "It has been a Godsend. Many times, staff members are in their rooms and it's been hard for them with so much work to do they don't even have time to stop for lunch." Deline says community support is often what gets them through the tough times.
You can't deny that nurses are special people. Willing to put others first for the safety of a community. "We are here to take care of people which is why I, and a lot of my other colleagues, became nurses -- because we want to help people," Nichol adds they’ll be on the front lines no matter how long it takes.
And Decline knows it could be months, "We're in a pandemic right now and we're playing the long game. This isn't a fight that's going to be over this month."
But it's a fight we have a good chance of winning thanks to the nurses on our team.
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