Virginia nurses are mentally depleted, tired, traumatized and disrespected by communities that once hailed them as heroes, according to the nurses association president.
In Abingdon nurse Ashley Fogleman said a spike in serious COVID cases had pushed medical professionals to the limit. “We don’t have the staff to take care of this patient load, and it’s not like we can turn patients away," she explained. "I am not able to spend the time with my patients, and I feel like it’s mainly just making sure these patients aren’t dying, and then going on to the next one.”
In Midlothian, nurse Ashley Apple agreed. "We’re now 18 months into this crisis, and nurses are caring for the sickest patients we’ve ever seen in our careers, day after day, with no end in sight," she told reporters. "We’re seeing massive volumes of patients stretching our resources think, and it causes significant moral distress for nurses when we can’t provide the level of care that our patients deserve."
Fogleman said some families in waiting rooms are frustrated – taking their anger out on staff. "Those double doors open, and sometimes it’s like an angry mob. They want to know why their parents or their kid is not coming back immediately, and we just don’t always have the answers for them."
Her colleague at Johnston Memorial Hospital, Aliese Harrison, recalled a 47-year-old man who squeezed her hand so hard that it hurt and confessed he was terrified. After he was placed on a respirator, she had to phone his wife who wept through the call.
Sheri Harsanyi, a traveling nurse from Northern Virginia, headed south to help in areas where COVID was spiking. There, she said, many hospitals had no room for pandemic patients.
"In southwestern Virginia, Tennessee, we were getting random phone calls from family members who are just panicking – to find a COVID bed for a loved one," she recalled.
Harsanyi worried for them – and for her colleagues who are leaving for less stressful jobs.
"My heart breaks, because I love nursing myself, but I’m worried about the generations before me who are going to lose their love of nursing because of this pandemic. You know just the work intensity of trying to rescue and stabilize a COVID patient is intense, and you go through your mind when you get home – what could I have done better to save that patient."
And Apple wondered if COVID could do irreparable harm to the nation’s healthcare system.
"We’re not soldiers. We’re caretakers,” Jones added. “We found ourselves on a battlefield with no end in sight, and we are hemorrhaging nurses from the bedsides as a result. if we fail to address the burnout, depression and PTSD among nurses, the consequences threaten to destabilize healthcare in the commonwealth and the nation."
All of those taking part in the conference said it was time for the public to support nurses – among them Mesha Jones of Charlottesville and Melody Dickerson of Arlington. They begged people to get vaccinated and wear masks.
"We know they work, because we’ve seen it with our own eyes," Dickerson said. "Ninety percent of the nurses at Virginia Hospital Center are vaccinated, and we have not had a patient-to-nurse transmission really since we all started to wear masks."
“I've had colleagues come up to me, and I can't do this anymore," Jones recalled. "We’ve been the front line of this pandemic for the last 18 months, and what we’re asking now is for you to be the front line, for you to take care of us.”
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
