Washington Post: Some places were short on nurses before the virus. The pandemic is making it much worse.. “As the virus stampedes across the country, setting previously unimaginable infection records nearly every day of its third major surge, some hospitals are desperately searching for staffers and paying dearly for it. There is record demand for travel nurses, who take out-of-town assignments on short-term contracts of 13 weeks or less at elevated wages. Per-diem nurses, who are willing to take a shift or two in their local hospitals, have been pressed into service. The military is chipping in. And still, in some places, it is not nearly enough.”
nurses
CNN: Nurse sends loving message to his family hours before losing his life to Covid-19
CNN: Nurse sends loving message to his family hours before losing his life to Covid-19. “Taking breaths every few words, a nurse struggled to record a video for his family hours before he died of Covid-19. Sergio Humberto Padilla Hernandez prepared his final farewell to his family, while holding onto hope that he could still recover.”
KMTV: Severe nursing shortage in Nebraska
KMTV: Severe nursing shortage in Nebraska. “Experts say if current COVID-19 trends continue, hospitals will be full in about three weeks. Hospital staff, especially nurses, are struggling to keep up with the influx of patients as demand grows.”
‘We are broken’: Montana health care workers battle growing Covid outbreak (NBC News)
NBC News: ‘We are broken’: Montana health care workers battle growing Covid outbreak. “Health care workers are frustrated that many people are not following basic public health guidelines, such as wearing masks. This summer, Montana’s governor imposed a mask mandate, but it’s been difficult to enforce in many parts of the state. As the winter and flu season takes hold, health care workers are most worried about staffing. What if they get sick? What if a relative gets sick, and they have to quarantine, keeping them at home for days? Will there be enough traveling nurses to go around as the virus surges simultaneously in several parts of the country?”
San Diego Union-Tribune: Husband-and-wife nurses contract COVID-19. She died in the hospital where she worked
San Diego Union-Tribune: Husband-and-wife nurses contract COVID-19. She died in the hospital where she worked. “When coronavirus cases began to tick up in the spring, Saludacion ‘Sally’ Solon Fontanilla, a nurse at St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, took some time off. As a diabetic with a history of asthma, she worried she could contract the virus from a patient. But the veteran nurse couldn’t stay away long. Her professional calling was too great, and her patients needed her, so she she returned to work in July.”
The home front: Virus stalks nurses after they leave work (Associated Press)
Associated Press: The home front: Virus stalks nurses after they leave work. “There’s red tape running along the floor of the coronavirus unit at St. Jude’s Medical Center in Fullerton, California. It’s a clear line of demarcation. On one side, the cold zone, where only a surgical mask, scrubs and shoe coverings are necessary. On the other, the warm zone, where the gloves come on. And the N95 mask. And the gown. And the hairnet. And the face shield. Another step through glass doors and it’s into the hot zone, where coughing patients in green-patterned gowns await. It’s outside this unit, in an area not marked by red tape or glass doors, that worries the nurses of ‘4 North’ most.”
Houston Chronicle: ‘I’m just so, so tired’
Houston Chronicle: ‘I’m just so, so tired’. “As a nurse, LaTonya Rafe has developed a sense of knowing when death is closing in. She felt it the moment she walked into the room of one of her favorite COVID-19 patients, the one she was sure would beat the virus overtaking her small Houston hospital. Not him, too, she thought. The team at United Memorial Medical Center rushed in to try to save the Hispanic man in his 60s as his blood pressure dropped. Their hospital is ground zero in Acres Homes, one of the city’s hardest-hit neigbhorhoods. Rafe speaks no Spanish, her patient spoke no English. She worried he would be frightened, so she scrolled through her phone to find Spanish-language ballads on YouTube to calm him. She stroked his hand because no family was there.”
“Zuck off”: Doctors, nurses, scientists rail against Zuckerberg (Ars Technica)
Ars Technica: “Zuck off”: Doctors, nurses, scientists rail against Zuckerberg. “San Francisco city officials are considering condemning the decision to name a local public hospital after Mark Zuckerberg—a move backed by nurses and doctors at the hospital, who have been railing against the Facebook co-founder and CEO since the hospital changed its name in 2015.”
Washington Post: Houston, Miami, other cities face mounting health care worker shortages as infections climb
Washington Post: Houston, Miami, other cities face mounting health care worker shortages as infections climb. “Shortages of health care workers are worsening in Houston, Miami, Baton Rouge and other cities battling sustained covid-19 outbreaks, exhausting staffers and straining hospitals’ ability to cope with spiking cases. That need is especially dire for front-line nurses, respiratory therapists and others who play hands-on, bedside roles where one nurse is often required for each critically ill patient.”
Nurses call on Senate to protect frontline healthcare workers: 164 have died from COVID-19 (WJLA)
WJLA: Nurses call on Senate to protect frontline healthcare workers: 164 have died from COVID-19. “The National Nurses United (NNU) is holding a memorial Tuesday at 9:15 a.m. to honor the more than 160 nurses who have lost their lives from COVID-19 in the United States. NNU said they will place shoes outside of the United States Capitol to represent every nurse who has died. They will also be reading each of their names.”
AP: Nurses, doctors feel strain as virus races through Arizona
AP: Nurses, doctors feel strain as virus races through Arizona. “They saw the ominous photos: Crowded hospitals, exhausted nurses, bodies piling up in morgues. It was far away, in New York, northern Italy and other distant places. Now, after three months of anxiously waiting and preparing, Arizona nurses and doctors are on the front lines as the coronavirus rips through the state, making it one of the world’s hot spots. The trickle of a few virus patients in March became a steady stream two weeks after Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey ended a stay-home order in mid-May and allowed most businesses to reopen, and is now a scourge with no end in sight.”
The Guardian: Survey finds 87% of America’s nurses forced to reuse protective equipment
The Guardian: Survey finds 87% of America’s nurses forced to reuse protective equipment. “The vast majority of America’s nurses say they have not been tested for Covid-19, are reusing personal protective equipment (PPE), or have exposed skin or clothing while caring for Covid-19 patients, a new survey has shown.”
The Atlantic: The Fragility of the Global Nurse Supply Chain
The Atlantic: The Fragility of the Global Nurse Supply Chain. “Figures from New American Economy, a research and advocacy organization, show that 16.5 percent of all health-care workers in the United States are immigrants, with even greater representation in specific fields such as home health aid, where nearly 37 percent of workers are immigrants. And perhaps no place has played as large a role in this as the Philippines, which for decades has provided the nurses, porters, and aides who have formed the crucial infrastructure of hospitals, clinics, and other health-care facilities in wealthier parts of the world.”
Nurses Quit En Masse From Russia’s Top Coronavirus Hospital: Reports (The Moscow Times)
The Moscow Times: Nurses Quit En Masse From Russia’s Top Coronavirus Hospital: Reports. “Nurses have quit en masse from Russia’s top coronavirus hospital in Moscow over poor working conditions and low wages, the investigative news website Open Media reported Monday. A former nurse who said she quit the Kommunarka hospital after almost two months told the outlet that more than a dozen nursing staff had left in that period. They reportedly quit because they were denied clean protective gear, food and adequate accommodations, and were not paid bonuses promised by President Vladimir Putin.”
Nursing Times: New mums risking sepsis over social media posts, warn midwives
Nursing Times: New mums risking sepsis over social media posts, warn midwives. “New mums are risking a serious infection – and even sepsis – by ripping off their dressings to post images of their caesarean section scars on social media, midwives have warned.” Yikes!