Nursing in the Age of Covid By Mrs Vera West
One issue that has not received much discussion in this present Covid culture is the effects upon nursing. The rise in patients, and fall in nursing staff has resulted in an acute crisis in nursing, with nurses having to work extra shifts and being exhausted. This increases the possibility of mistakes. These is also a looming problem, seen now in New York, of mandatory Covid vaccinations leading to mass resignation of nurses. New York intends to solve the problem by importing nurses, but there is a limit to this, as nurses are still needed overseas, and there is the qualification issue, and all the Covid-related issues too. So, it is all a bit of a mess that will get worse. Hopefully, one will not get sick and need nursing care.
“An exhausted nurse has warned of a looming national health crisis claiming hospitals are understaffed and struggling to cope with a surge in Covid-19 patients.
Lucy Murnane revealed she was at breaking point after working night rotation and pulling 10 hour shifts in one of the busiest emergency departments in Melbourne.
She claimed hospitals were already pushed to capacity and a severe shortage of staff had left available nurses feeling 'exhausted'.
'We are struggling, to put it frankly,' she told Channel Nine's Today Show on Monday.
'We've been struggling for a long time now. The start of the year saw the highest volume of presentations that we've ever had, and that was in a time where we weren't seeing really any Covid.'
'We're very stressed. But we're just trying our best to look after each other.'
Burnett Institute modelling has provided a grim forecast for Victoria with warnings of Intensive Care Units exceeding capacity and thousands of residents dying.
Between 1,455 and 3,152 Victorians are expected to die from Covid-19 between July and December.
Daily infections are predicted to peak between 1,400 and 2,900 cases at the end of October. The peak is then forecast to skyrocket in mid-December.
ICU admissions could peak between 462 to 953 while hospital intake could rise between 1,950 and 4,400 new patients.
Premier Daniel Andrews has called the figures a 'sobering read'.
Surging hospitalisations are expected across the country with state premiers and chief ministers discussing the latest modelling from the Health Department at a national cabinet meeting on Friday.
ACT chief minister Andrew Barr described the forecasts as alarming.
Ms Murnane warned hospitals could not cope if patient numbers surged any further.
'We're already at capacity,' she said. 'We are trying to make room for more, as I'm sure every hospital in the state is, and every hospital in Melbourne is.'
'But we simply just don't have any beds and we don't have any nurses for those beds at the moment. So we're feeling it already, and it's only going to get worse from here.'
The emotional interview came after Ms Murnane penned an open letter to premier Daniel Andrews pleading for the state government to provide Covid-payments to nurses.
The letter was published on a Change.Org petition that has drawn in more than 38,000 signatures.
'As you are aware, we are in a terrifying health crisis, the most terrifying aspect of which is the nursing shortage,' the letter reads.
'This week, as I entered my 6th night shift in a row, I walked into work and burst into tears, I took myself to the toilet, hoping no one would hear me.'
'I have always been resilient, but this pandemic has broken me and most of my colleagues.'
Ms Murnane said nurses were beginning to bend under the strain of staff shortages.
'We are now being asked to 'Team Nurse', in short, our staffing situation is so dire that we are being asked to team lead a group of nurses and undergraduate nurses, delegating them tasks all while each patient (9 of them) is our sole responsibility,' she wrote.
The nurse revealed simple tasks such as water breaks were the most challenging with heavily-clad staff forced to remove layer of PPE every time.
She claimed many nurses had chosen to work in vaccination hubs because of the promise of higher pay and easier working conditions.
'Please, I implore you, pay us the covid disaster pay, increase our wages, please do something, otherwise there will be none of us left when all is said and done,' she wrote.”
“An Australian nurse is warning about a potential national health crisis as understaffed and overworked healthcare workers are struggling to cope with the country’s surge in Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) patients.
Australia has become infamous in recent weeks because of its extreme coronavirus lockdown restrictions. The statements from nurses, doctors and other health practitioners in the country prove that none of the restrictions have worked to curb COVID-19 cases.
Lucy Murnane, a nurse working in Melbourne in the southeastern state of Victoria, spoke to the Australian television program Today on Monday about how hospitals are dealing with COVID-19 in the state. In her hospital, she said the nurses “are spent.” She had just finished a 10-hour night shift when she spoke with the breakfast television program.
“We are struggling, to put it frankly,” she said. “We’ve been struggling for a long time now. The start of the year saw the highest volume of presentations that we’ve ever had, and that was in a time where we weren’t seeing really any COVID [cases].”
“We’re very stressed. But we’re just trying our best to look after each other,” she added.
Murnane explained that the situation has been made worse in the state because many nurses have either left the healthcare industry entirely or resigned to assist the state’s mass vaccination drive, which is offering higher pay than hospitals.
Other nurses have also resigned to seek employment in quarantine hotels and COVID-19 testing clinics.
“We’re already at capacity,” said Murnane. “We simply just don’t have any beds and we don’t have any nurses for those beds at the moment.”
“We’re feeling it already, and it’s only going to get worse from here.”
To compensate for the lack of nurses, Murnane explained that her hospital is preparing to use a “team nursing model.” This will involve calling up physical therapists, social workers and even using students to join Murnane and the other trained nurses.
“Because we simply don’t have enough nurses to probably cover the huge surge that’s coming.”
The current situation in Victoria is terrible, and experts modeling the state of the pandemic believe the situation will only get worse. Daily infections are expected to peak at the end of October, and then skyrocket again sometime in December.
Murnane leading petition demanding better pay for nurses
Murnane has petitioned Victoria State Premier Daniel Andrews of the left-wing Labor Party to introduce a specialized COVID-19 disaster payment for nurses, believing this will help draw people back into hospitals.
“We need some kind of incentives, otherwise we won’t get nurses back to the hospitals to help us with what’s coming,” she said.
“We’re just, unfortunately, not going to get nurses back to hospitals based on the love of it anymore,” added Murnane. “No nurse ever got into the healthcare system because of money. We all knew that – nursing isn’t a well-paid job. But the love of it is just not there anymore because we are just exhausted. Victorian nurses are just spent.”
In a previous interview, Murnane explained that she felt very frustrated because “we’re constantly told that we’re heroes and we’re told that we’re the backbone of the community, but we don’t get treated like we’re heroes. It feels like we’re the forgotten ones.”
Murnane has also rejected the possibility of a one-off special payment. She has instead called for the pay of nurses to correspond with the amount of work they are expected to do.
“Our wages do not equate to the work that we do,” she said. “We are, I guess, as everyone has described, the backbones of hospitals, and we just do not get the pay that equates to what we do.”
Murnane’s petition received more than 4,000 signatures in less than a day. As of press time, it has nearly 50,000 signatures.”
I agree; the first step here is to increase the pay of nurses.
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