Two nurses — one in New Jersey and one in Los Angeles — reflect on the personal and professional struggles of the current coronavirus crisis.
As much of the country, nurses across the country are on the frontlines of a battle that most Americans only see at a distance, filtered through blaring headlines, sobering statistics and chaotic hospital scenes.
For Schafer, an ICU nurse in New Jersey, it’s the opposite. She doesn’t have a moment to spare due to the massive influx of COVID-19 patients. “You don’t sit, you don’t eat, you don’t drink,” she says. “It’s hard to catch our breath.” To limit these visits, Schafer and her colleagues have become creative, rigging up IV poles outside the room by using under-the-door extension tubing and appointing “runners” to safely pass PPE to them.
Grace Schafer and John DeWig, both wearing personal protective equipment, are combating the coronavirus epidemic on both coasts. Nurses have also absorbed the added burden of serving as proxies for patients too sick to physically visit with family members. And orchestrating phone calls and FaceTimes — each with a morbid urgency to them — is taking its toll. “You're trying your best to keep a brave face, but you end up crying with the patients,” says DeWig.
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