Covid 19
and our
Frontline Workers
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Who would of thought, the life we take for granted could be changed so quickly and the whole world turned upside down. Of course people and countries around the world constantly deal with grief and tragedy for many reason’s, but to think in 2020, the whole world would be haunted with the past of 100 hundred years ago, when the world was struck with the 1918 Spanish flu in which 1/3rd of the human population was affected. Yes the world has seen many other’s
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See this shocking list
ANTONINE PLAGUE (165 AD) – 5 million died – cause unknown
PLAGUE OF JUSTINIAN (541-542) Death Toll: 25 million – Cause: Bubonic Plague
THE BLACK DEATH (1346-1353) Death Toll: 75 – 200 million – Cause: Bubonic Plague
THIRD CHOLERA PANDEMIC (1852–1860) Death Toll: 1 million – Cause: Cholera
FLU PANDEMIC (1889-1890) Death Toll: 1 million – Cause: Influenza
SIXTH CHOLERA PANDEMIC (1910-1911) Death Toll: 800,000+ Cause: Cholera
FLU PANDEMIC (1918) Death Toll: 20 -50 million – Cause: Influenza
ASIAN FLU (1956-1958) Death Toll: 2 million Cause: Influenza
FLU PANDEMIC (1968) Death Toll: 1 millionCause: Influenza
HIV/AIDS PANDEMIC (AT ITS PEAK, 2005-2012) Death Toll: 36 million Cause: HIV/AIDS
SARS – 2002 – 2003 – 8,096 people got SARS and 774 of them died
H1N1 Pandemic – 2009 – 2010 – 151,700 and 575,400 people die worldwide
EBOLA – 2014 – 2016 – 28,616 cases of EVD and 11,310 deaths
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These are a sample of a few main pandemics, but of course there has been others like Zika, Mers, airborne disease from the mosquito, measles, the list goes on.
I honestly have gone thru my whole life ignorant of all of this, but the track record shows that you have a good chance of being aware or affected by a pandemic in your life time. I think there is an illusion with most, that we are all so advanced in our time that tragic pandemics in advanced countries are not really a reality. Of course the heavy impact of this pandemic has proven how fragile human’s are and also how capable and not capable we are.
So this battle continues and people on the front line put their own life at risk working to keep the economy going, people safe, food on the table, taking care of us when we are sick, and sick with covid and more. These are the people that we really need to thank.
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The people we should be grateful for are not the celebrity, but the person behind the check out, the person picking vegetables in the field , the police officer protecting us, all staff at hospitals and nursing staff not at hospitals, the staff at care homes, the list goes on. The people in jobs who literally keep everything going so we can keep going and stay at home and be safe.
I am so grateful for all of this, and we can return the favour by doing the right thing, wear masks and really don’t see people, it really can make a big difference not socializing with extra people, be it family or friends.
To do the right thing and more, will only help us get out of this mess quicker. It also honour’s the front line workers who risk for us by doing this.
I have a couple of blurbs from a couple of front line workers and an interview. I am so grateful for them and their time.
Please read and thank people if you get a chance xxx
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PLEASE LISTEN TO THESE PEOPLE BELOW
FEEL FREE TO LEAVE COMMENTS
I work in a Covid ICU in San Diego. We are overflowing and when I see people still posting photos from their big family thanksgivings and Christmas celebrations and I know their future holds illness and death – it just breaks me. We are beyond telling people to mask and distance. No one is Listening. All we can do is try to hold onto something and let the tidal wave crash over and hope we can come up for air before it’s too late.
@ALWAYS.THE.BRIDE
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My name is Madonna Malik & I’m a registered nurse (toronto, ont) working in the capacity of a clinical operations manager .
In this role I work closely with registered nurses, practical nurses and all members of the Healthcare team to provide safe and efficient care for all of our patients within the hospital.
In collaboration with the team we work through barriers on a day to day basis , especially during this pandemic to provide the best care possible during what is proving to be a difficult time for Healthcare professionals. As a former frontline RN, and now as someone who can provide leadership and support, I am thankful and appreciate of all frontline staff, their consistent dedication to patients, families & each other to remain positive, supportive and utilize their critical thinking on a day to day basis to get through such a trying time for healthcare workers.
Madonna Malik
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Thankyou for your wonderful support!! It has been at times the one thing that has kept us going. I’m a critical care nurse of 6 years and I never imagined that i would be working in such a traumatic time!
I’m incredibly proud of the department I work in! The most rewarding aspect is still seeing the patients that have at times been so close to death and then come out the other side of it! I don’t think I’ve cried with joy and emotion so much in my career when ever this has happened. Outside of nursing I’m a wife and mummy to a fantastic 3 year old boy.
Just weeks before the first lock down I was attending a wedding showcase as a plus sized model hence how I stumbled across your post.
Hope 2021 is a better year for the wedding industry, many of the people I know from the wedding shows and themed shoots have had such a difficult time too. Happy
@INKED_AND_CURVED
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Singe mom of two of the cutest boys. Everything I do is for them. Coming home at 7am, doing home school with them, and getting 3 hours of sleep before going back to work has been my life this past year. But, it too shall pass and we will be even stronger than before! Only the strong survive.
@teri_annie7
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Interview
Do you see very different levels of sickness and do you feel at more risk being in someone’s home of catching covid, please tell me what that experience is like.
At the start of the pandemic I was working in a hospital on a heart and lung transplant ward. Staff and patient’s were scared, no one knew what was going on and many of the patient’s were immunosuppressed and vulnerable.
In April 2020 I started working in an admission avoidance community team. The team have been busy treating patient’s at home to keep them out of hospital. What I have noticed in this third lockdown is that patient’s who are acutely unwell do not want to go to hospital as they are scared of catching covid. These patient’s cannot be managed safely at home. While I understand that they are scared it makes caring of these patient’s difficult and you have to almost beg them to go in. I have noticed an increase in referrals from LAS and demand for the service has gone up.
What I love about community is going into peoples homes to help them. You get to see some lovely homes and as well as some on the opposite spectrum. Some patient’s have social issues, are hoarders, use drugs and in some cases we have to visit in pairs for our own safety. You never know what you are going to get behind closed doors! It is both exciting and scary. The sad thing is that community staff have had their cars damaged, broken into, and equipment stolen. This makes the job hard, but I love the patient contact. I have seen someone so many times that even their parrot now recognises me and says hello!
I am now with the District Nurses as I am on a community rotation programme. I keep having what I think will be quick wound dressing visits and then when I arrive the patient is really unwell. GPs are not seeing patients and are working from home. This makes my job more difficult as we are with the patients, seeing how unwell they are and having to manage them. This then delays me seeing other patients. The demand on the service has increased, the needs of patient’s have increased and I feel that GPs need to do more to help community services. Every patient I see mentions that they cannot see their GP.
The lack of GP help and support delays dying patient’s receiving anticipatory drugs to help ease their pain and suffering during their last few days of life. As a community nurse I can now go and verify a patient death if a patient dies and has been reviewed by their GP in the last 28 days. This is something I never thought I would be doing but it is happening more.
As I have treated covid patients in their own homes and in hospital the risk is the same to me. I make sure I am careful, use PPE and will literally wipe all my equipment and face with antibacterial wipes!
I imagine there is not enough nurses with this pandemic, and lots of other issues people have are pushed to the wayside for now, how do you feel your average week compared to a pre – covid to now ?
Pre covid services were busy but manageable. The issue now is that entire wards and community teams are having to close and shut due to outbreaks of covid. This puts greater strain on services.
The other big issue I have is that a lot of patient’s I see have hearing problems and they cannot understand what you are saying through the masks. This causes issues with communication and makes patient assessments difficult.
The NHS has always been short of nurses. A lot of people are leaving the profession due to poor pay, ill health and burn out. I am so grateful that I am not a student nurse during this, as they had it rough with no payment for their hard work and interruptions to their education.
However, I love my job and the patient’s make my job worthwhile. As I work across services I get to see and know my patient’s. I love doing wound care clinics as it’s like therapy and I get to have a proper chin wag with the patient’s.
Your partner is a porter too, so you are both on the front line, so my heart goes out to both of you. I guess you are both in your own social distance bubble. How do you both manage family and xmas and people in your life.
Right now we have no children but many of my friends and family are pregnant or have just had babies. We have stayed away for the safety of our loved ones. We have both struggled with feeling isolated. It is all work and no play.
We were both off Christmas 2020 which was nice as we didn’t get a Christmas in 2019 as I worked all of it. But I was sad that I couldn’t see my family and nephew. At the moment we seem to be eating our feelings as we are tired from work and cannot do anything else! Due to nursing I have been busy with my nursing degree and then working full time in the pandemic.
I qualified as a nurse in October 2019. A lot of my non nursing friends are frustrated as I have missed out a lot due to work. I have had to miss out on holidays, gatherings and baby showers due to work. I can understand their frustrations, but they do not see the toll the job takes out on my mental health. As a student I saw a paediatric arrest and the child died. The next day I was crying in the chiropractors office! People do not see and understand the toll the job takes out on you mentally and physically. My nursing friends check in on me more as they are in the thick of it and get it. I just wish at times that my other friends and family would be more patient and understanding.
I like to ask as a final question, what advice would you give the average person out there or a statement in regards to covid and safety.
Regarding covid safety, I get that everyone is fed up with the rules. We are supposed to get married on Halloween this year. I would rather not see people now so that at the end of the year people can all be there at our wedding. This lockdown things are way worse then before. Covid does not care who it affects. I’ve had colleagues die, their relatives die and seen many patient’s die from it. We cannot get through this if people do not follow the rules.
NHS staff are burnt out and knackered. I am mentally and physically drained. People are isolated, scared whilst others think the rules do not apply to them. People will not care until they are directly affected by it. It is simple, follow the rules and we will get out of this quicker.
On a lighter note…
I was at co-ordinating at work on Thursday. I was office bound triaging all the new referrals and dealing with LAS. I got up to go to the kitchen and when I got to the door my colleagues behind me started to scream with laughter. I felt a cool breeze on my thighs. When I looked down I then noticed that my scrub trousers had fallen down and were hugging my ankles and my bridget jone’s pants were on show to all!
Best wishes,
Amy
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Interview
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When this 1st happened do you ever imagine how long and big this pandemic would become, was there a point you realised this was going to be huge
Initially i took it with a bit of a pinch of salt; I assumed that it was just the media hyping it up and it would be no worst than the seasonal flu we always have in intensive care. I don’t think it really hit home until I saw the images of the Italian intensive care units on the tv; the nurses with their faces bruised and battered from the PPE. It was like standing on the beach listening to the tidal wave sirens. It was coming!
I can not even begin to imagine watching people come so close and how it feels when those that don’t make it, and how it feels when those that make it. As you said it must be so rewarding.
The first few weeks were a blur of darkness. We had assumed that the virus would just effect the lungs, but we couldn’t have been more wrong! Heart, lungs, liver, kidneys it hit them all! The worst part was not being able to have families with their loved ones. As intensive care nurses we are so used to having families at the bed side. To us their support is as important as our patients. It became a faceless disease. We didn’t know who these patients were, What they did, what they liked, all the things families would often tell us during their time sat at the bedside. You couldn’t help but look at your own family and think “this could be us”
There was however some light in that period, a few patients managed to be discharged and have since returned home to their families. Families now have access to an email address where they can send photos, information and letters to their loved ones. The wonders of FaceTime and WhatsApp have also reconnected loved ones and this has been absolutely fantastic to see our patients smile when they see their families cheering them on. Standing on the unit clapping as our covid patients are discharged from our unit is incredibly emotional and without a doubt a rewarding experience.
Being a critical care nurse you must have the heaviest days, how do you mentally get thru this.
As a critical care nurse you see the worst but you also see the best! Even after nearly 7 years I still can remember certain patients with stories that I don’t think will ever leave me. Covid has without a doubt pushed us all to our limits, both physically and mentally. But as a team you look out for one another, you support one another and if you need a good cry at the end of the day then that’s ok. We’re all human! And behind all the high tech equipment and gadgets it’s still a caring profession.
Covid feels like its getting worse and a lot of people do take care and others just dont see it, whats your advice to anyone, the general public with covid
It’s difficult, I understand it’s not much fun to be stuck inside; trust me my three year old bounces off the walls! Ive wanted to stop my car and scream at people gathering outside pubs and restaurants after a 12 hour shift. The NHS needs people to follow these rules in order to 1. allow us as a country to get back to some form of normality! And 2. Continue with the other work that the NHS does which has been significantly impacted by the virus.
Emma x
Thanks too all of this beautiful selfless persons who contributed
lets do the right thing and honour them and take care of ourselves and others. stay home and stage safe xxx
feel free to comment
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