Weary Fort Worth nurse says COVID-19 toll on health care workers, patients is rising
A nurse at John Peter Smith Hospital said stress is growing among healthcare workers who treat COVID-19 patients as caseloads rise and more hospital employees get sick.
The nurse said healthcare workers worry about getting the virus and are concerned about what the number of sick employees could mean for patient treatment.
“You hear a lot that we might need more beds, which is true, you physically need beds. You can’t just add more healthcare workers,” the nurse said. “That’s everyone’s concern, that there’s not enough staff.”
The nurse spoke about other ways the pandemic is taking a toll on healthcare workers and provided a glimpse at patient treatment and conditions at JPS. The nurse spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being fired by JPS for speaking publicly. The person showed a reporter a copy of a JPS identification to prove employment.
On Saturday, 93 COVID-19 patients were being treated at JPS and, as of Thursday, more than 60 employees were out sick after testing positive, according to data provided to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. It’s the highest number of COVID-19 patients the hospital has seen in one day.
The nurse is fearful that people are not taking precautions to stay healthy more seriously.
“It’s going to get worse, it’s just a matter of when,” the nurse said.
Patient increases at county hospital
The nurse works on the patient pavilion floor in JPS’ main building. The floor houses the hospital’s emergency room, the intensive care unit, some operating rooms and the progressive care unit. It’s where the bulk of COVID-19 patients are supposed to be and at one point, the nurse said, 56 patients were housed in the unit, which is designed for 36.
“They’re ... putting two patients in a room together, assuming they’re both COVID positive,” the nurse said.
When asked about patient overflows and doubling patients in rooms, JPS spokeswoman Diana Brodeur said COVID-19 patients may share space under an agreement involving their physician and infection prevention teams. The rules for sharing are strict, and she said doubling up allows nurses to address care more quickly to patients who need frequent attention.
The nurse said nurses are a COVID-19 patient’s No. 1 caregiver and often the only person the patient will see in person.
“Doctors do not go in the rooms, unless it’s an emergency,” the nurse said. “Our techs and other support, which we depend on, do not go in.”
Nurses visit patients three times a day, unless there is an emergency, to lower their risk of exposure, the nurse said.
Brodeur said there’s still ICU capacity and about one-third of patients there are COVID positive. She said patients the hospital has seen more recently are less sick and are getting to care more quickly than those who were hospitalized in March and April. While the ages of those hospitalized trended down at the beginning of June, hospital officials are starting to care for more older patients again, Brodeur said.
Who is being hospitalized?
The nurse said nurses are concerned about how quickly a COVID patient’s health could deteriorate, based on the people they’ve cared for so far. Infected patients are coming to the hospital with oxygen levels that are so low it could become fatal — and the patients aren’t realizing it, the nurse said.
“A normal person’s oxygen is 92 or higher,” the nurse said. “But some people are coming in, they’re talking and complaining about a fever or cough but otherwise they’re chilling, and then you look at their oxygen and it’s in the 80s or 70s. That’s something that you should normally feel, and those levels will not sustain life long term.”
Patients are showing up to the hospital in much worse condition than they think they’re in, the nurse said. There’s a fear that people with COVID-19 who need oxygen won’t go to the hospital because their symptoms aren’t as severe as they think, the nurse said.
“Normally if someone came in with their oxygen that low, they would be gasping for breath,” the nurse said. “It’s like if you run up a flight of stairs and try to catch your breath, but these patients aren’t feeling it.”
Dr. Veer Vithalani, an emergency room doctor who is also the medical director for the MedStar group and works with the Tarrant Medical Operations Center regarding COVID-19 strategies, said some patients are going to the hospital with symptoms that don’t initially look like the coronavirus.
“There was a guy that came in with chest pain ... we were concerned he might be having a heart attack,” Vithalani said. “He looks at me in all of my gear and says, ‘Don’t worry, I’m not coughing and I don’t have a fever.’ Thirty minutes later, my resident said the patient’s oxygen levels are low, and, sure enough, he had a fever and was positive.”
Vithalani and the nurse said cases like those are putting extra stress on healthcare workers to make sure they treat everyone as if they might be infected. But hospital data shows that more than 90% of COVID positive patients at JPS initially went to the hospital because of the disease, not for another reason.
Sick healthcare workers
The stress of working with COVID-19 patients combined with the everyday fear that you could leave work sick continues to weigh heavy on healthcare workers, the nurse said.
The nurse keeps work clothes and gear in a “coronavirus” bag in the garage at home, and a spouse is the only person the nurse has regular contact with, the nurse said.
“I work three 12 hour shifts a week and mostly just stay home unless I have to leave,” the nurse said, explaining the fear of being a potential carrier. “In terms of seeing my family, that’s just not happening. I’m glad that everyone else got to see their mom and dads on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day but I haven’t seen mine in months.”
More than 115 employees at JPS hospital have tested positive for COVID-19 during some point of the pandemic.
As of Thursday, 62 employees had been approved to return to work following COVID positive tests, Brodeur said. But 64 employees were still out of work following a positive test. The hospital experienced a sharp uptick in sick employees around June 18, according to data released by the hospital.
Employees who are out because of COVID-19 are compensated for their time, Brodeur said. According to JPS Human Resources, only those employees who can prove they got ill at work are eligible for worker’s compensation.
“That decision is made by the third-party agency, which evaluates all claims,” according to HR.
But the nurse said it’s nearly impossible to prove where you became infected, and employees are out that extra level of monetary protection if they don’t qualify for worker’s compensation.
“A friend of mine was off of two months and had to rent an RV to live away from his kids and wife, so he’s out the money from not working and renting the RV,” the nurse said. “He went to his manager to see if there was compensation and they basically were like ‘No, you got sick that’s on you.’”
This story was originally published July 5, 2020 at 7:00 AM.
