So I was having a conversation with my sister about Coronavirus. Now, I know people like to joke about Coronavirus. I understand humor is a coping mechanism. It’s just, I think, working in a medical field during this, can feel particularly isolating. Because no one is allowed to visit in an effort to prevent further transmission of the disease, unless the patient is on their deathbed.
So you have people who are joking about it, probably to cope with being stuck in home all day. Now, I can’t speak for other people working in the medical field in the hospital, but it definitely hits different for me. It almost feels like it’s not being taken seriously (I *know* it’s not being taken seriously, just look at the fucking government).when other people who aren’t in the medical field joke about it.
On the one hand, I’m glad people can joke about it, because to me, it means they likely didn’t experience it first hand or seen a loved one go through it.
And don’t get me wrong, us medical professionals, will also joke about it on shift. However, to me, it’s more of a “Well, we’ve likely all been exposed a million times over by now. Can’t do anything other than to laugh, put on your PPE and shrug it off” kind of joking.
I wasn’t expecting what I said to hit me so hard, when I said that to my sister, but it definitely did.
“Put on your PPE and shrug it off”
Shrug off the dying patients who can’t see their family in person.
Shrug off the fact you know that the patient’s significant other with multiple risk factors will be next.
Shrug off the fact that the person you coded probably has COVID because their chest CT looked like it, and you hope to God that your PPE is enough, because you just spent 30 minutes in the room taking turns running the code and doing chest compressions on a patient with no heart beat for who knows how long, but he certainly looks like he’s dead. Shrug off the fact that no matter how much you flog his chest and break all his ribs with the compressions and how much epinephrine you give, he still has no pulse and he still looks mottled everywhere. Shrug off the fact that there were some nurses who ran into the room without PPE because of the heat of the moment.
Shrug off the fact that your colleague who works in NYC had to pitch in and take patients in the hospital because of how massive the ordeal is, and told you that she would pretty much get 10+ patients in the morning, only to have near all of them die by the afternoon and she’d get another 10+ new patients to replace them, and wash, rinse, and repeat. Day in and day out.
Just “put on your PPE and shrug it off”. Do what you need to do.
Maybe you don’t care about my experience and will continue to go about without a mask and forgo social distancing. Maybe you’ll have changed your mind and decide to wear a mask and social distance. I just know I can’t make you wear a mask and adhere to social distancing, but just know that the virus doesn’t discriminate. It can happen to anyone, and some people don’t have a choice. Just look at the people work at a meatpacking plant that led to 300 cases, due to working conditions.
The healthcare team can only do so much, we can only “put on our PPE and shrug it off”. I’m afraid of when we are no longer able to brush it off, because eventually the weight will be too much to get rid of. You already see bits and pieces of that with recent healthcare worker suicides. Who would people turn to if the providers and nurses break?