These times nowadays have changed due to COVID-19. No one was prepared for this. After the first positive patient in the US, hospitals started to become alarmed at how it would spread quickly. Hospitals started to prepare for the worst, yet hoping for the best with social distancing being in place. I am forever grateful to be working in an amazing hospital who has taken precautions for everyone’s health. I am forever grateful for the amazing community as well who have supported the nurses. Local businesses have been amazing in supporting healthcare workers and first responders by donating meals and masks. It gets busy in the ER with patients coming in, and so at times, we don’t have time to sit and eat. Many companies are supporting healthcare workers by donating meals or offering free or discounted items. I’ve seen how the community has come together as one whole to try and fight this pandemic.
Hospitals have done a lot of changing to try and prepare for the worst and the peak of the pandemic. We have new guidelines and protocols to follow that changes on a day-to-day basis. It’s hard to keep up with but it’s for the best. There are door monitors and screeners at every entrance of the hospital to screen patients who come in the front door. No visitor or only one visitor is allowed depending on the unit. With this pandemic going on, it breaks my heart to see some patients be alone in the hospital. I’ve heard of multiple stories of patients dying alone without their family around them. There are lots of changes and new rules that are in place and hopefully as a community, we can all learn that social distancing will help lower the curve.
It’s crazy how a lot of people are still out hanging with friends and not social distancing. I call it a domino effect where if one person in your family has it, so will all of your other family members and friends who you come in contact with. And then their family and friends will be affected. A lot of people can be asymptomatic and not even know they have it. That’s why social distancing is so important right now during this. Yet, people are still walking into the grocery store with gloves and masks on… and then preceding to touch their car and everything in their home with the same gloves still on. This defeats the purpose of wearing the gloves in the first place. As time goes by with this pandemic going on, we are learning more and more each day. We are able to test more patients and get the results back a bit quicker than what it was originally. I’m hoping that since we are seeing fewer cases each day, that we still maintain the social distancing because it’ll peak again with everyone out together again. No vaccine has been made yet so this virus will still be lingering around for some time. And with that, we all need to be cautious about what we are doing in the community to protect our loved ones and ourselves.
Written by Jennifer Lam
