Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/1259846
down all but essential businesses. Schools shut down. Anybody who could do so started working from home. Many became obsessed with "flattening the curve," slowing down the rate of infection so that we could stay within our health care infrastructure capacity. The horrifying consequences of "surging," or a rapid influx of COVID patients needing inpatient or ICU care, was first felt by nurses in New York City, which in just a matter of weeks was forced to devote entire hospitals to treating COVID and started parking refrigerated shipping containers as temporary morgues outside hospital back doors. NNU members who worked in ICUs with the Veterans Health Administration in New York City found themselves being assigned three, four, and five patients—all with COVID, almost all on ventilators, all on multiple drips and sedation. One night, RN Maria Lobifaro, who works at a VA hospital in Brooklyn, said she put her foot down when a manager tried to force her ICU to take on a sixteenth patient, which would have meant that one of her nurses would have had six ICU patient assignments. "I just spoke up against management and told them that's something I definitely wouldn't do to my nurses," remembered Lobifaro. "I don't care who they call. They can call upper management. Honestly, Jesus Christ himself could come down from the cross and take care of this patient, that's fine, but it's not going to be one of my nurses." She remarked how dangerous they all felt it was that the nurses, who normally care for one, or a maximum of two, ICU patients were juggling so many assignments. They were already running themselves ragged without breaks, without lunch, with barely any trips to the bathroom. "You're barely making it through the shift. You're just giving medications and running around. And giving more medications and giving more medications." COVID changed nursing, too. Whereas before nurses would take every available opportunity to be in the room with their patients to provide assurance, company, and comfort, now they tried to limit their time in order to reduce exposure—and many felt guilty and terrible about it. With hospitals closed off to patients' family members and visitors, patients were left isolated and alone, particularly frightening for intubated patients on vents in the ICU. Nurses who worked in COVID wards adopted elaborate after-work routines to try and decontaminate themselves as much as possible before entering their houses and being in contact with their families. Many kept their work shoes in their car trunk and stripped down their clothes in their garage and showered before letting their families touch them. Eventually, many NNU nurses won the right to have hospital-issued scrubs so that they would not have to wear and launder contaminated clothing at home. Some nurses still decided the risks were too great and chose to live apart from their families in separate apartments, hotel rooms, or even recreational vehicles. "If I had the appropriate protections, I would probably not live alone," said Falguni Dave, an RN at Stroger Hospital in Chicago 14 N A T I O N A L N U R S E W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G A P R I L | M AY | J U N E 2 0 2 0 WHO declares novel coronavirus a global public health emergency JANUARY 30 NNU begins surveying members on their facilities' readiness FEBRUARY 1 11,953 cases, 259 deaths in 24 countries FEBRUARY 1 First U.S. death in California (not reported until April 21) FEBRUARY 6