In a hospital in North Dakota, nurses are being forced to test patients for malignant coronaviruses with only a surgical mask. And across the state, scores of nurses are working several nights in a row, fearing to speak as North Dakota is experiencing a rapid coronovirus spike that is facing an alarming shortage of beds in hospitals.
On Monday, state officials announced a suitably repulsive band-aid to counter the tidal wave of cases affecting most rural hospital systems: COVID-19 positive nurses and other health care workers may come to work Huh.
Now, the nurses are crazy as hell.
“Nurses are heavily trusted in our community, and if we are saying that we can go back to work after testing positive – how do we expect the public to take this epidemic seriously?” Tessa Johnson, president of the North Dakota Nurses Association, told The Daily Beast.
“I have heard from many people that they are at their breaking point. I think we are losing nurses by this. It has affected everyone differently.
But when several nurses in North Dakota told The Daily Beast that they were “terrified” by the virus, they insisted that they would still show up for their dangerous jobs because “that’s what nurses do.”
“Nurses do not feel safe. “They don’t feel they have enough PPE and everyone is worried about younger employees and they don’t feel supported by the state leadership,” said Johnson, who is also the executive director at a senior long-term care facility. “But they continue to go to work and put themselves at risk, as bus nurses do – even if they are hanging by a thread.”
As of Monday, North-Dakota medical professionals may continue to work in COVID-19 units in hospitals and nursing homes in asymptomatic COVID-19 cases. It is one of several steps taken by hospitals and authorities as part of their “growth plans” to curb the virus, which has moved the entire state into the “high-risk” category.
“This only applies to COVID positive health-care workers who do not have symptoms and are only allowed to have COVID units working around patients who already have the virus,” North Dakota Gov. Doug Bergam said Monday Said to
Bergam, insisted, aligns with the CDC guidelines that allow asymptomatic medical personnel to work during severe staff shortages.
These changes have also come in North Dakota as elected leaders – which, according to a poll Lowest rate of residents using face coverings in the countryRefusal to implement a mask mandate or any other strong COVID-19 mitigation plan.
A North Dakota nurse, who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of professional reprisal, said the state’s unprecedented move to allow the virus to treat patients is “the least sighted – and the absolute worst – harmful” is.”
The nurse said, “We need state authorities to take decisive, drastic decisions to deal with this virus, or else our hospital system will collapse completely.” “Nothing is going to help health care workers to treat patients with the same disease because of the disease. This only makes the problem worse. “
Another nurse, who works in Bismarck, told The Daily Beast that she does not know that she is ready to endanger herself and her family for a state that does not seem to be “now He has not returned. “
Johnson said COVID-positive nurses would not be isolated with patients with the virus and could spread the deadly virus to their colleagues in “bathrooms and dining rooms and break rooms and elevators”.
Not only is it “unrealistic” that there is a “highly contagious” virus for specific hospital wings, she said, the new measure is “only going to make things worse” because it will increase nurses’ stress and prevent them from resting. . Hospital areas “where they should feel safe.”
North and South Dakota currently have the worst per capita mortality rates in the Midwest as an outbreak of coronovirus. And while coronovirus is ramping up at an uncontrolled rate in dozens of states across the country, new cases in North Dakota, daily averages for hospitalization, and deaths top the state, according to Propiosa.
The North Dakota Department of Health reported 1,801 new cases in the state on Thursday, with a total of 59,173, with positivity about 18.7 percent. Last week, the state had 171 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people, according to the CDC, the highest per capita rate in the country.
Officials also revealed 11 deaths due to the virus on Thursday, making the state’s death toll at 697. The dead include North Dakota Republican state legislator David Andahl, who died in October – but still won his seat.
Health experts are concerned about the state trajectory of 762,062 Americans, with neighboring states experiencing similar booms.
A senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Drs. Amesh Adalja, who specializes in infectious diseases, believes North Dakota’s virus trajectory officially puts it “in crisis”.
“The Daily Beast said,” This state does not have a lot of medical resources, which means that if something goes wrong, it can be reduced. “Plan for cases
On Wednesday, the Health Department revealed that some residents have tested positive for COVID-19 several times, and officials said they have launched an investigation to determine if those cases are, in fact, reinvestigations. .
A Health Department spokesman said, “Our cases are people who have tested positive twice, have developed symptoms for the second time, over 90 days among positive results.” Seminar.
Adalja, however, emphasizes the decision to allow North Dakota’s health care workers to continue working with “acute infection” which is a “sign of the times” compared to a dangerous decision that led to re-infection Can.
“Re-infection is something that is very rare. These are acute cases of medical personnel working with patients who are already infected. “That being said, it will get worse in North Dakota before it gets better.”
Bergam has moved each county in the state to a “high-risk” level, denoted orange. A step below the level, shut-down measures are never used in the state, limiting all bars and event sites to 25 percent capacity. On Monday, Bergam outlined several other initiatives to address the crisis, including hiring EMTs and paramedics to run test sites.
“Our hospitals are under heavy pressure now,” Bergam said. “We can see two, three weeks out of the future, and we know that we have serious obstacles.”
One of the state’s largest health care systems, Sanford Health also announced on Thursday that it would recover by sending hospital patients to a nearby nursing home in Fargo in an effort to free up hospital space. according to this SeminarThe nursing home is opening a wing that will provide 24 additional beds for a hospital system that is already at “very high capacity”.
The North Dakota Nurses Association blames the state leadership for allowing COVID-positive medical workers to work. In a statement on Wednesday night, he said that it should be a health care workforce’s choice to stay on the job of their employers rather than being COOID-positive.
“If a nurse believes that they are not sufficiently safe to take care of the patient and chooses not to work under these conditions, the employer must not retaliate against the nurse to make that decision Should, “the statement said the state should suppress COVID 19 mitigation guidelines, such as mask-wearing and social distance.
Johnson said that nurses are already in line daily for their patients.
“They are probably positive health care workers who have not been tested,” Johnson said. “Everyone is already putting themselves at risk for this virus. Unless there is a very big change, we are preparing for a very deep week to eight weeks.
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