Covid stimulus help for desperate ICU nurses is urgent. But Congress is on vacation.
Covid stimulus help for desperate ICU nurses is urgent. But Congress is on vacation.
Americans worry about their grocery stores running out of toilet paper. Imagine how much more worried they'll be if their hospitals run out of nurses.
Nov. 24, 2020, 12:01 PM EST
By Janet Campbell-Vincent, former ICU nurse
I have been an ICU nurse for 17 years. I never thought I'd leave. Now I'm not sure I'll ever go back.
I've been on the front lines of Covid-19 since it broke out eight months ago. More than 250,000 people have now died in the United States. Case numbers are rising in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. And health care workers like me are burning out.
I'm exhausted. I'm angry. I'm sick of watching patients die. I'm tired of comforting families feeling guilty over the birthday party that cost their loved one's life.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump spends his weekends golfing, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sent the Senate home for Thanksgiving vacation a day early, even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just advised against holiday travel.
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A lot of my colleagues are hitting their breaking points, too, and that
could lead to a mass exodus from the profession. Americans worry about their local grocery stores' running out of paper towels and toilet paper. Just imagine how much more worried they'll be if their local hospitals, overwhelmed by surges of Covid-19 patients, run out of nurses.
Our leaders have left it up to medical workers to save American lives, but they've denied us the resources to do so. I can't fathom why they're on vacation when there is so much work to do.
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https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/covid-stimulus-help-desperate-icu-nurses-urgent-congress-vacation-ncna1248809