Nurses and Patients Battle the Ins and Outs of COVID-19
By Ambria Cook and Quinn Friedl
During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. J.B. Pritzer announced a statewide stay-at-home order for Illinois as a way to prevent further spread of the virus.
This caused most nonessential businesses to temporarily close as other essential service places remained open. At that point, on March 20, 2020 there were only 753 COVID-19 cases in Illinois and six deaths total.
Currently, a Tier 3 mitigation has been placed on Illinois as the Midwest winter temperatures spike up COVID-19 cases. Considering Thanksgiving holiday is coming up, it is advised by Illinois’ public health officials to stay home and connect with family virtually. At this time, Illinois has 646,286 reported COVID-19 cases total with 11,430 deaths.
“[At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic] It was very hectic, there was a lot uncertainty and it took a lot of planning with a lot of different people around the hospital, it was tiresome, it was a lot of extended hours, a lot of emotions,” said Kimberly Bertini, Nursing Leader at the University of Illinois-Chicago Hospital.
“We never had a shortage of PPE, we always had an appropriate amount, so we didn’t have a PPE problem… staffing was challenging,” Bertini said. “We always had an appropriate amount of staff, [but] we had all these nurses and medical assistants who weren’t working because their department was closed yet they could work and they wanted to work.”
“One of the challenges was creating a staffing model on the in-patient side where we needed staffing — as a way to utilize people from areas that were closed. It was a labor-pull type thing.”
Things were difficult for the hospital staff as they had to quickly create ways to get to patients quickly and more effectively during the beginning of the pandemic. Doctors and nurses at UIC managed to keep up with PPE needs despite the ongoing changes and effectively placed nurses where they’d be most effective.
“We had to figure out a creative way to match skill sets with where people were needed and I think we did a pretty good job with that,” Bertini said.
Michelle Pitre, a Staff Nurse at the University of Illinois- Chicago, said “It started slowly. We had admitted a patient that we thought had the flu but he ended up having COVID-19.”
“With that one case on March 19, I would say like by March 24 we had a handful of patients and by March 27 it was our entire unit, it was kind of a wave that crashed on us.”
“[The most difficult challenge] I think was being scared, and kind of a mass hysteria instead of a calm, cool approach,” Pitre said. “At the beginning of the pandemic, we were working crazy hours because the patients were so sick and I can see that happening again.”
“The whole thing is sad, being an ICU nurse you’d think you experience death a lot but you really don’t — you can fix people then send them on their way, this is a whole new ball game when you think; what are the chances?”
Fortunately as Bertini stated, UIC Hospital was fully equipped with PPE. Nurses were given the appropriate amount of equipment needed to manage patients. Pitre supported this statement.
“They had N95s ready and at one point they actually made a 3-D printer of plastic equipment, we all got fitted and we all have shields, we have lots of gloves and goggles. We are very thankful we have gowns that are washable,” Pitre said.
“So far so good, my fingers are crossed that — that’s the way it continues but who knows how long this will go on if it continues for a long time then that’s when we’ll probably run into issues.”
Both Bertini and Pitre suggested that ways to better protect oneself is to wear masks, socially distance, and stay at home. “Listen to the experts, it’s so basic and common sense,” Pitre said. “I hope that we don’t go through anything like this again in our lifetime.”
Most of the nation’s attention has turned towards suppressing COVID-19, or pretending that it doesn’t exist. A worrisome trend has been observed in many of those that survive their infection; a variety of lingering symptoms that can last for months or longer.
Jeremy Bartel, who was infected with COVID-19 this year, recalls the difficulties of the illness.
“Physical symptoms included high fever… headache, nausea, moderate to severe stomach pain, and diarrhea,” Bartel said. “I recall forgetting the word “shelf” in a conversation with my wife while I was isolated…I could only refer to some things as motioning towards the item I was talking about or calling them ‘things’ and ‘you know what I’m talking about’. That was a very bizarre feeling of not being able to recall simple things that I knew.”
Many people who survive COVID-19 will not present lingering symptoms beyond the course of the virus, but those that are affected long-term can suffer from just as wide a variety of debilitating disabilities. Bartel, who describes himself as overweight but in good health, now contends with breathing difficulties.
“After illness, there is still a tightness in my chest and my breathing is difficult after strenuous activity,” Bartel said.
Though the physical effects of the coronavirus are largely physical, the emotional effects that can result from infection, and the tangential consequences of a national pandemic, are equally disruptive. Jonathan Snyder, who suffered from coronavirus in mid-July of 2020, said aspect of infection was the most challenging.
“The hardest part was the emotional challenge of taking care of myself and being there for my family,” he said. “I had a lot of emotional weight about how to get through this, what this actually was and how I was going to take care of my family at the same time.”
When asked about the actions taken by the federal government to ameliorate the pandemic, Snyder responded with criticism of the Trump Administration.
“(The federal response to the pandemic) affected me in a way that I lost a lot of faith in the Federal system since all previous pandemics and emergencies, the federal government was there but in this case, it abandoned my state and my governor forcing us to fend for itself.”
Snyder is also of the opinion that the government’s failures were multiple.
“It should have been treated as a serious threat as soon as the Federal government got wind that it was starting to spread out of China instead of being downplayed as some common cold that would just fade with time. In a nutshell, the United States failed in their response completely,” said Snyder, echoing sentiments expressed by many state governors, members of Congress, and experts in the field of medicine. Adherence to the recommendations of scientists and medical professionals has fallen primarily to local authorities.
Personal protective devices, social distancing and hand washing have all been established to help avoid infection. But, when asked what he would have the general population do, Snyder provided another mild and polite suggestion.
“Wear your fucking mask.”
