I struggled with what subject to write about this month. With everything going on around us it seems so strange to write about anything else but the COVID19 virus. Everyone has been overwhelmed with information on this virus. So many articles, news stories, fake and real, scams, people who mean well but spread panic and untruths. I have been in healthcare for over 25 years and the medical field has been dreading this for a long time. Now, here we are.

In times like these seemingly normal people do extraordinary things. Anyone working in healthcare during this time is doing it because it is their duty, their job, their paycheck….but it’s so much more than that. Not many people understand what it feels like to know that you could be the person to infect your own family, your own parents or neighbors, simply by doing what you do every day. Yes there are problems getting necessary equipment, yes the staff are struggling everywhere to take care of the sick, but it is a calling for most in medicine. No matter the education level, the frustration, the challenges. The medical field will rise above it all and do their absolute best to make a difference. They always do. To quote Eleanor Roosevelt, “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the things you think you cannot do.” 

Amazing information being shared among nurses and doctors about how to maximize the care they are providing by using inventive ideas like running one ventilator for multiple patients, one doctor figuring out how to hook 8-9 patients to one vent! ICU nurses have been sharing valuable, detailed information on how they are learning to more efficiently manage multiple patients in isolation using IV pumps set up outside the rooms. This prevents nurses from having to put on loads of protective equipment that needs to be discarded after one use, sometimes simply to go in a room and reset a pump. The important thing is, healthcare providers will continue trying, thinking outside the box to continue the standard of care, improving processes and finding smarter ways of fighting despite the obstacles. Healthcare providers are going to work every day doing the very best they can. We are scared too but we will win this fight. If you know someone working in medicine, thank them for what they are doing because not everyone can do it.