COVID diary: ICU nurse details her experience with burnout

[mainer]

OMG. COVID patients are so enraged and belligerent they're actually throwing things at the staff. And these poor nurses have to take care of them.

The phone is just constantly ringing off the hook. We aren't allowing any visitors in the hospital at all anymore. And obviously, families are calling to check in on their family members that are in the hospital. And we try to warn them that, you know, we can't field phone calls all day. We're busy, it takes a lot of work to keep people alive. And family members get frustrated. And they call repeatedly. They yell at us on the phone, they tell us that we're ignoring them. They ask us what kind of treatments we're giving to their family members. And then they argue with them because they don't think that we're doing needs to be done.

Then we have the patient population who is belligerent themselves. They are rude to the staff, they throw things at us. Sometimes they'll swing... I mean, it's unbelievable. They really believe that we're trying to do harm, yet they come to us for help when they can't breathe. I just don't know how to explain it.

https://www.mainepublic.org/health/2022-01-31/covid-diary-brunswick-icu-nurse-details-her-experience-with-burnout-amid-recent-surge

[peacefreak2.0]

1. This is my local hospital.

Heart breaking.