D & D.

Doesn’t it remind us of dinner and dance? Sadly, it has been a while since hospitals had that. How much we all miss the delicious food and drinks during those nights.

I guess the new D & D that healthcare workers are currently facing is… feeling Desperate & Distraught. The kind of D & D none of us are looking forward to.

With the rise in the number of cases, hospitals are being swamped with patients. When there are more patients than resources, the staff is stretched paper thin. And it only gets worse as the day passes.

“Help me. I need a break.”

This thought is running across the minds of all healthcare workers. ‘When will we finally be able to switch off our phones and take a breather?’

Annual leave is a word that has vanished from our vocabulary. With the workforce shortage, even our days off are carefully planned. No one is surprised when they are called to do overtime.

Maybe… Just maybe… our ALs will be approved (Yay!).

But can we enjoy our vacation? No! Because of the constant fear that we might be called back to work by our managers. And if we try to find an excuse to avoid reporting to work, we are ‘rewarded’ with a LETTER which marks us down.

So what actually is the annual leave for?

Most would choose to be at work rather than have a fear of our ward number ringing on our phones.

Recently, healthcare workers have been allowed to travel. Great news to all of us. Woohoo! Let’s celebrate! Oh, wait…..We might be permitted to travel but it is almost impossible to get leaves, so what’s the point?

We are mentally exhausted, even on our rest days.

And if we are already drained on our days off, imagine how we feel during shifts.

The horrifying tales of the Covid ICU

Every day we are on a battleground, fighting a war against an invisible enemy.

With the increasing number of patients in the Intensive Care Unit and the staffing shortage, ICU Nurse Samantha could feel a tsunami approaching her.

As more ICU beds open up, the patient acuity naturally increases. More pressure is put on Samantha and her colleagues.

Though Samantha is grateful that other ward nurses are deployed to help in the ICU, she has additional duties to carry out now, such as guiding the new staff properly as THERE IS NO ROOM FOR MISTAKES IN THE ICU.

With the increased workload, the ICU team is mentally exhausted & physically drained. Moreover, to make things worse, Samantha and her team are often unable to take the break they are entitled to.

From admissions to emergencies to proning patients, they are occupied from the start of the shift until the end. Their break time includes the time it takes to remove their protective gear. That means they barely have time to fill their stomachs.

Most team members would just forgo their meals and use the washroom to freshen up before heading back to the warzone. Imagine not being able to eat despite all their energy being used up during the shift.

This leads to the team being hungry, low energy, low morale, and highly stressed.

One might be quick to throw in the white flag at this point. I mean, who wouldn’t?

Why work so hard for a manager that doesn’t care about their staff?

I am sure most of us can relate to this.

However, this isn’t the case for Samantha. The Nurse’s Pledge is drilled into her.

‘To maintain professional knowledge & skills at the highest level.’

Despite her tiredness, she washes her face and steps back into her role. She puts on her protective gear and continues nursing her patients as well as guiding her colleagues. Her hunger vanishes as she is caught up in her work.

Her tiredness is gone as she attends to the patient who had the ‘code blue’ alarm activated. She and her team do everything they can to resuscitate the patient lying in front of them. Her patients will always be her top priority.

 

Final moments with a Covid patient

Samantha recalls one of her most heartbreaking encounters when nursing a patient in her final moments. She was helping a grandma, Mdm. Ang, to communicate with her family via WhatsApp. Mdm. Ang’s family was unable to visit her due to the restrictions.

During the conversation, tears started rolling down Samantha’s cheeks as she played the videos sent by Grandma’s family. It was distressing because her family didn’t get to be with her in her last days.

Watched Grandma struggle to talk to her family was heart-wrenching. She was speaking in short sentences due to her breathing difficulties.

She mumbled a few words that were hard to interpret. Though Samantha could not catch all the words clearly, she managed to make out this sentence:

“I will hang on. I will be good. I love y’all.”

Samantha’s heart shattered after hearing this as she knew Mdm. Ang wasn’t doing well. Deep down, she knew that the likelihood of Grandma getting discharged from the hospital was slim to none.

Imagine leaving the world with none of your loved ones by your side. Just a bunch of strangers in white taking care of your needs? What would that be like?

I appeal to the public to take preventive measures and protect themselves. The above is a true story. I wish everyone out there to be in the pink of health and stay safe. I hope no one will go through what Mdm. Ang went through in her final days.

Words of encouragement for healthcare workers

As for healthcare workers like Samantha and others – we need to look out for one another.

During this period especially, we should stick together as a family. As much as we pay attention to our patients, we should care for our colleagues too.

We are all mentally & physically drained. We have to keep going. Many lives are in our hands. We can’t afford to let fatigue make us lose focus.

Managers, please look after your staff first before focusing on the tasks at hand.

Coloured hair and colourful socks are just lovely little things that the staff do or wear so we can keep ourselves going.

We are constantly reminded to prioritize our tasks. But our managers often pick on us for dying our hair unconventional colours or wearing Mickey Mouse socks. I mean, seriously, in an emergency, is my Mickey Mouse going to run away and make me forget how to run a code?

We as healthcare workers need a chance express ourselves by bringing joy and happiness into our lives any way we can. For example, with cheerful hair colours and “extravagant” socks.

Facing death every day does our mental health no good, so it is vital to remind ourselves regularly that joy is within us. After all, we are the only human contact Covid patients have; it is our mission to bring a little bit of sunshine with us into their hospital rooms.

Hope

Managers, I thank you all for giving the ward treats at times. That does spark happiness and boost morale. I thank you all for being there for us and for guiding us on our journey to be great nurses.

I hope that managers and staff will continue to work together and build a strong team that no Covid or storm can break.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. To build a wall no one can penetrate, we have to focus on each others’ strengths, and together we can push forward.

Managers need to help health workers tie their tasks to a meaningful purpose. Unfortunately, the current work environment demands that people work harder, usually for long hours, with little rest and multiple calls on their time.

This is not the proper time to harshly criticize your staff or to ask them to “hang in there a little bit longer” because this disease has no end in sight.

And employees, this pandemic has opened the door for growth and new opportunities. Take the time to know each member of your team on a more profound level. Now is the perfect occasion to learn more about your coworkers and yourself.

Ask your colleagues about their life goals and passions. You’ll be surprised how connecting with other people at work can help you generate great results with your patients, family, and friends.

I will leave you all with two quotes from Richard Branson that I hold close to my heart.

“Train people well enough so that they can leave, treat them well enough, so they don’t want to.”

“If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”

I hope to get this message across to all employers & employees out there so that we can all build a more conducive environment for us to work in.

Stay safe & take care.

God Bless,

Staffan Stewart