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By the time Feldhaus returns home she has been gone for 4 p.m. and is mentally and physically exhausted, but the sights and sounds of her shift as an emergency nurse at Mitchell’s Avera Queen of Peace Hospital maintain the adrenaline.
As the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps across South Dakota and hospitals scramble to find the manpower to handle the influx of admitted patients, it has become nearly impossible to compartmentalize work and life. family life.
The hospital currently has about 20 patients admitted with COVID-19, but Avera says the number fluctuates from hour to hour. The South Dakota Department of Health on Friday said 574 people are currently hospitalized and 741 people have died from the virus statewide.
“You’re more stressed, you’re more impatient with your family at home because your job is to constantly give and do your best,” said Feldhaus, a home supervisor who has worked with Avera for 12 years. “Sometimes you don’t have much left when you get home.”
Hospitals and medical staff have been preparing for COVID-19 outbreaks since March and 75 to 80 percent of the planning remains in place. But while South Dakota wasn’t significantly affected until the fall, the days turned chaotic for nurses.
The state has seen 518 of its 741 COVID deaths since October 1, including 304 in November. The state has recorded 2,415 of its 3,993 hospitalizations since Oct. 1, including 1,272 this month, as South Dakota continues to battle with North Dakota for the nation’s worst state in per capita cases . South Dakota ranked No. 2 with 7,883 cases per 100,000 population and No. 1 with 2.2 deaths per 100,000 people on Friday.
Avera has moved staff from one hospital to another, while nurses are receiving cross-training to work in the emergency room or intensive care unit. Avera Queen of Peace has eight intensive care beds and the number constantly hovers around that number, but there is room for overflow within the hospital. The hospital has also recruited 30 more staff – with plans for five more next week – to help with the ICU, acute care, medical emergencies and the emergency department.
“Patients can get better and get worse quickly,” said Rochelle Reider, vice president of patient services at AQOP. “Every hour things change, especially with COVID patients. They have an unpredictable care journey. It’s a little two steps forward, one step back, one step forward, two steps back.
For months, local nurses watched and read stories of dire situations in hospitals in the most densely populated areas of the country, but now the pandemic has engulfed local and rural communities. They no longer watch safely from afar and wonder what it’s like to be in the middle of a battle with no timeline.
“In February and March it was all on the coast, these are numbers and it’s hard to put a face to a number,” said Feldhaus, a wife and mother of three. “At work now you have faces facing these numbers and children you are trying to comfort. It is no longer a number in the newspaper.
One hour east of Sioux Falls, the Sanford USD Medical Center is also experiencing similar peaks. Despite a staff of 7,300, there are shortages in COVID-19 care, which has led to the reassignment of nurses from pediatric and neonatal ICUs to help.
Simple tasks such as providing water to a patient can take up to 15 minutes simply because of the demand on the lung floor. Confused patients tear oxygen cords and often cannot remember simple instructions.
Lunch breaks are often missed, and sitting down to take a break is a rare occurrence, as nurses constantly have to rush to check on patients whose oxygen levels are so low as to raise an arm or take two steps in one. bed in a chair leaves them breathless.
For many Sanford nurses, each shift includes a trip to the hospital morgue.
“You walk out of the COVID unit and a call light comes on,” said Matt Peterson, intensive care manager at the Sanford Lung Unit. “You’ve been here for an hour with all your things and you’re sweating. You are not seated and must have gone to the bathroom half an hour ago. You look at the call light, it breaks your heart and you put your things back and answer the call light. It’s every shift, every hour.
Patients with COVID-19 are placed in rooms with doors and without windows, which lends itself to the grim ambience that often lingers on the floor. Many patients with complications did not take the pandemic seriously initially.
Peterson did not experience any outbursts from the patients or any demand for a magic cure. Many of his patients are silent, knowing that they could have stopped sitting in a room hoping their oxygen levels didn’t continue to drop.
“They just know this is not the place to have this conversation,” Peterson said. “Some of them have a hard time staying alive and it’s hard to achieve at that time. We’re in the middle of it all and we watch the news and they talk about the seriousness of the situation, and this patient is in the room watching this as he watches his oxygen level go down and he knows he ‘ `are leaving for the fight of their lives.
At the start of the pandemic, hospitals did not allow companions or visitors with COVID patients, but AQOP and Sanford allow a visitor for patients deemed to be on the verge of death. Nurses now frequently act as intermediaries for doctors and family members of patients, and it is a relief when some of the burden is lightened.
“Usually there’s someone at the bedside who can filter this information, especially when you’re dealing with older people,” Feldhaus said. “Usually there is a husband, wife, next of kin – they can be sick themselves and they don’t ask as many questions as a daughter or son would. Thus, it can be difficult to convey information. Doctors want to have a contact to communicate. If you are not in this field or have a medical background, this can be difficult.
The thoughts and experiences of a long shift don’t go away on the way home. Reflections on what happened throughout the day, as conversations with patients, colleagues and physicians are replayed on a loop.
Emotions and thoughts often erupt like a roadblock, as nurses push them aside in their minds to focus completely on the tasks required throughout their shift.
“There are times when I get admission in the morning and they died during my 12-hour shift because the virus has progressed so quickly,” Peterson said. “I come home with thoughts in my head that I usually didn’t come before COVID. … The ability to have someone you trust to cope with is something every nurse needs right now. It is very taxing on your sanity to know that you are going to see him again and again.
It becomes even more complicated when he is absorbed in all of these thoughts while trying to spend an already limited time with family members. Feldhaus often finds himself reminding his children of the COVID-19 precautionary protocols that have been constantly reiterated over the past eight months.
She is concerned about bringing the virus home from work, although she knows it is more likely to be contracted at the grocery store or at a sporting event due to the amount of personal protective equipment worn around the house. hospital.
Feldhaus helps plan her daughter’s wedding without knowing if it will be on time, and she also missed seeing her son inducted into the US National Guard due to his work schedule.
“I don’t wear a mask because I’m afraid of catching (COVID-19), I wear a mask so I don’t give it to the person next to me,” Feldhaus said. “… I’m more at risk at the grocery store than at work because we have the right equipment. We know who has COVID, generally. We just assume everyone does it to the ER because the symptoms are so varied and different for everyone.
But even normal activities and fun can’t always provide a respite from COVID-19, as it has devoured family conversations and social media for months. Peterson doesn’t have time to engage with those who downplay COVID-19 after seeing the havoc it creates on a daily basis.
“I don’t have the energy, I don’t have the ability to argue with things that just aren’t true,” Peterson said. “It just isn’t worth my breath anymore. I can not do this anymore. People are dying, people are sick, and denial is hard for me to swallow.
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