I’m a nurse for the health department, working primarily with schools. My job, during this time, allows me to be on call at home while doing a few shifts at the department reaching out to positive COVID patients for data, containment and support reasons. The shifts will grow as the number of cases do.
I left bedside nursing over a year ago, but wonder if we all will eventually get called back. Understaffing is an issue at most hospitals already. My heart is with the nurses, techs, docs, security staff, etc. dealing with this fluid situation.
At first, I saw many discussions and articles about how we have to rethink our work commitments in this country (i.e. too many people go to work sick or send their kids to school sick for fear of being fired, very little down time, insurance tied to jobs, listening to politicians and pseudoscience over medical doctors and experts). We really have to prioritize our mental and physical health and I liked that this seemed like an opportunity for that.
Seeing so many people, including our leaders, disregard that and have more concern for the economy over lives (mostly corporate earnings, it appears) is disheartening to say the least. You want to “open everything up” without closing off the spread of this virus? That is insane and selfish.