I've been off for the past four days, but am going to work tonight and Saturday night. I hope and pray that our PPE situation has improved from the last time, and that we are not having to re-use our N95 masks. I found out that our facility now has opened a "Covid Isolation Unit" where all of the patients are in isolation for presumed or confirmed Covid. This unit doesn't have a cost center, so each of the other units in the hospital are having to staff this unit. So every 4th day, two of us will be floated to work with Covid patients.
The fear tipping point for me will be my first Covid Code Blue. For the first time that I can remember, codes now make me nervous, and I've attended or team led many many (hundreds?) code blues, and each one has been a slugfest as a team of 5-10 health providers pull out all the stops to save a life. So now there are reports that hospitals are having to reconsider the calculus, as we have to consider if the risks associated with the exposure is worth the minimal success rate for Covid patients that get so sick that they code. I've attended codes where I've run into the room of an isolated patient without any PPE on, in order to do the heroic thing to save a life, and I've never questioned my actions. But those patients had TB, or MRSA, or VRE, or C Dif. Nothing that could kill me like Covid-19. So I'll now have to think about that decision, and go through the extra few minutes (I've timed it, not using a PAPR unit I can get PPE donned in under a minute, but if I'm forced to use the PAPR that can take up to 90 seconds... an eternity if I'm the first one into the hole).
OK, gotta get some rest before I head in tonight. Oddly, I'm sorta looking forward to being with people for 12 hours. It's been enormously difficult physically isolating myself, and I've only been doing it (right) for a week.
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