April 22, 2020 • 35 mins
Travel nurse and friend of the show Marissa Hadavi discusses her experiences in nursing through COVID-19.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to stuff
I ever told to you protection of I Heart Radio,
and today we are so happy to be joined by
my good friend and great supporter. Thank you so much
(00:29):
for being with Usressa. Before we get started, listeners, we
did want to add in a quick trigger warning for
this episode because we are going to be talking about
COVID nineteen and what is happening inside hospitals and emergency rooms,
and we're not going to get to graphic in anything,
but totally understand if that is triggering right now. So
(00:52):
can you introduce yourself to the listeners. So, Hi, I'm Marissa.
I am an ear nurse. I'm a travel nurse. I
have been a nurse for eight and a half years.
I have traveled to seven different states and I am
currently working in a er in Connecticut. Yes, and Mercea
(01:15):
and I we have been friends since seventh grade. Yeah.
We met over Harry Potter Bolder that I was very
impressed with, and so I came up and I was like,
we're going to be friends. True story. My entire sixth
grade year, I hadn't actually like talked to anybody. I
(01:38):
had just moved to the County in sixth grade and
seventh grade was a pivotal year. If you talked to
our fab five of friends, everybody has a story of
Annie being our common link, and usually Harry Potter was
somehow involved. Oh yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So the reason we
(02:01):
wanted to bring you on here is because you are
a nurse, and right now with our our quarantine and
this whole COVID nineteen thing, we thought it would be
cool to have a conversation with you about the types
of things that you are seeing. But maybe before we
(02:21):
get into that, um, can you talk about when did
you know that you wanted to be a nurse? Annie?
I might actually have you like help me remember what
this class was called back in middle school, but there
was um like a career class career opportunities or something
like that. And I remember like looking through this like
(02:44):
occupational handbook and projections you know, for the next twenty years,
and just like flipping through this book and like looking
at nursing and healthcare and I kind of had always
has been drawn to like medical healthcare profession and then
(03:06):
I knew it. Actually thirteen years old, I wanted to
be a travel nurse, and so that was always the goal.
It took me a long time to feel confident enough
in my skills to travel. I started off, I did
one year in med Surge and then I transferred to
the EAR and then I had been in the e
ER for an additional like four years before I started traveling,
(03:29):
so I had five years under my belt before I
started traveling for the last four years, but I always
wanted to know I've always been like a nurturer. I
am the oldest of three children, and I'm also the
oldest of like all of the cousins on my mother's side,
so I've kind of always fallen into that nurturing caregiver role.
(03:50):
It comes very natural to me to be a nurse.
That's awesome. Yeah, um, and I hearing your stories, I
hear that nurturing side a lot, but I also hear
this very strong like take charge, this is what needs
to be done, and kind kind of seeing that aspect
(04:12):
of it as well. Oh yeah, definitely have some of
it has come. Like the more you're put into that
role for sure with nursing, to just like you gotta
step up and get the job done. But yeah, I
you know, in the e ER, you definitely have to
be able to be calm in amidst of chaos, and
(04:36):
that calmness also has come natural to me. The reason
why I like the r though specifically within nursing, is
there is a big team work approach within the e ER.
You've got like all the services that are collaborating together.
You've got the relationship between the nurses and the doctors
(04:58):
is very collaborative. You've got r TIE, you've got radiology.
Everybody's there. So I've always really liked DR and the
team work that happens there. And you kind of have
to be able to be a good communicator in those roles.
I'm sure so you you and I have been. We're
(05:19):
doing our virtual hangouts are virtual happy hours. Yeah, and
we've been talking kind of about what you've seen during
this pandemic. Can you go into that a little bit.
I Am not going to be graphic, but yeah, the
(05:42):
last time we had talked um it was about a
week ago and it still I will consider it a
very lacious shift with COVID nineteen. What you're seeing as
far as symptoms, a lot of people are and I'm
sure some of this may be already knowledgeable to you guys.
(06:05):
Is that you're seeing a lot of shortness of breath
and then like a cough, hypoxemia, which is just a
low oxygen level, fever, sometimes chills, just generally filling weak.
But there's just a lot I think happened that particular
(06:26):
shift where I had just previously read three days prior
from one of the New York doctors was like, this
is what we know so far, and they had posted
something and it had been shared by a lot of
people within like the medical community, and he had talked
about how he was seeing these oxygen saturations with the
(06:52):
hypoxemia of people averaging and it wasn't necessarily a time
to call the ICU if you saw those percentages and
that these people would be talking to you with like
really low oxygen levels. And I hadn't at the time,
like we've seen low oxygen levels for sure, but it
(07:16):
was it was wild to walk in that particular night
and having people like so many people that were low
oxygen level. And I mean, we will do what people
want to be done for them as far as supportive
(07:36):
care with oxygen, but for the first time you're seeing
people like really having to ask how much intervention medical
intervention do you want with your care. Do you want
to be resuscitated, do you want to be intimated? Do
you want comfort measures only? And that was one of
those nights that there was a big shift as far
(07:59):
as from going to from somewhat of an e ER
mode to almost a hospice mode, which I do have
some experience and as well, I think one of the
questions that we are these things like what from your
perspective do you see that is happening that might be
different from the media sharing or that might be under exaggerated,
(08:22):
over exaggerated. Can you kind of talk about that as
a personal eyewitnessing in the e ER. Is it overwhelmed
because people are paranoid, like what? Or is it underwhelmed
that people aren't getting what they need? So at first,
the in the first couple of weeks, it was it
was dead, like I would say, for like a week
(08:43):
and a half almost yeah, week and a half, when
everybody kind of started going into like you know, stay
at home and lockdown mode, it was completely dead. Other
than truly emergencies. People were scared to come in, as
they should be, because when you come into the e
R you could be possibly exposed because every e R
(09:10):
in the country has COVID nineteen patients that they're seeing
their admitting definitely, But there was a good week and
a half where we really, like all of a sudden,
saw a huge trend down from the other like miscellaneous
like people that we usually have some flow of we're gone,
(09:36):
and so it was it was odd to be like, Okay,
so this is what the emergency looked like, should look
like if the emergency room was just used for emergency purposes.
So we saw a lot of minor care stuff go
completely away, So that was different. It did pick up.
(09:56):
I think one of the great things that I saw
this particular hospital will do is that they really streamlined
their flow for getting people admitted better, and they started
making room and really thinking outside the box on how
the ear wouldn't get congested. So I don't know if
(10:17):
that made things easier, but as far as just like
what I've seen so far, that we did have a
period of time where like there was nothing so just
out of curiosity, you are a travel nurse, did you
already explain kind of what that is for the audience
(10:37):
so they understand when we are asking you questions specific
to that level of nursing. Okay, so travel nursing. What
that is is I go to hospitals that need staffing help,
which is anywhere in the in the United States and
the country, and they're prior to even COVID nineteen there
(11:01):
was a nursing shortage. So I do have a compact
nursing license. Um, it's good in thirty four states. UM.
Then you can also apply if you have a nursing license,
like which my home state where I, you know, originally
am graduated from, like a Georgia nursing school, then you
(11:23):
can say, I, you know, I took my nursing license
in the state of Georgia. UM. And you can do
license by endorsement to get those states that are not
part of the compact. Georgia is part of the compact.
So whatever state you're in for your original nursing license,
that has to be part of the compact. That state
(11:45):
has to be part of the compact. So say like
California is not part of the compact. Um, So any
nurse that was originally got their nursing license in California,
they would have to individually like apply, okay to get
a nursing license in a different state, right And you've
been to several states. Yeah, so I have been to
(12:06):
seven different states. Um, I've worked in the state of Georgia.
Then from Georgia, I went to Massachusetts. From Massachusetts, California
to l A and then I did Alaska, Colorado, did
several more in California, then came back to Maine and
then Connecticut. So seven and so that was wondering with
(12:29):
the fact that you are a travel nurse. Has there
been an influx of nurses being pulled out of different
states to other states to help in this emergency situation?
Or is it that every state is in an emergency situation?
So where you are is where you are. Every states
in an emergency situation right now. Every nurse also can
(12:49):
make that decision if they want to choose to hop
to a different state contract. Because it's my medical world.
I don't know how much of this is public knowledge
to you guys, because you know it's the world I
live in. But they like have kind of dropped a
(13:10):
lot of the rules with the like the Nursing Compact
for certain states are having to have a particular license.
I'm actually just about to finish my contract here in Connecticut.
This is my last week on this contract and then
my next contract starts next week. Um, and I'll be
(13:33):
going to mass Massachusetts. When I was making that decision,
Massachusetts is not part of the compact. I had to
apply to get a license two days later. Massachusetts like says,
if you have a license in any state will take you.
You don't have to pay the hundred and seventy dollar
(13:56):
feed to get our license. It's it's neat and states
completely like, oh, this a nominal fee. We no longer
are requiring it. Like, if you have a license, come
on down. We have some more for you listeners, But
first we have a quick break for a word from
our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsor. So can
(14:31):
you tell us as a person who was in the hospital,
in the front lines, as you are called, and being
held a hero? Which is really problematic in my mind,
and in describing these things as a war speak, because
when you do that, not only are you saying these
people are willing to sacrifice themselves, which is not necessarily
the case. Willing to help people is one thing, but
(14:52):
saying that you're on the front line in a war
that could kill you, it is a whole different world
and a whole different conversation, especially not being compensated as either,
are being almost not recognized as such. And what are
your I guess your feelings. How are you feeling with
the fact that you are on the front line, you
are in an area that's highly contagious and likely that
(15:12):
you are being exposed to people who are infected with COVID.
I love how you how you phrase that question, because
the whole thought around you're a hero, I feel like,
does almost pressure you to have that feeling of that
nurses and doctors should be murders, but we're not in
(15:35):
any way. Pepe is a huge issue for sure, and
the fact that you know everywhere is in a crisis
with PPE and getting the correct pepe and in a
reuse in definite position is giving that feel of like,
(15:59):
you know, you're having to make this choice on you know,
if you're going to care for this patient and put
your life potentially on the line being exposed to a virus.
I mean, there was this post the other day by
another traveler, her name's E. M. Chain. She I think
(16:22):
phrase that probably the best in this post, and it
really spoke to me. I'm gonna paraphrase it because I
don't remember it exactly, but she started it off with
personal protective gear. Would you send a firefighter into a
fire without personal protective here? Would you send a police
(16:45):
officer into a shooting without personal protective gear? Then why
would you expect healthcare workers to go in to our
own shooting and deal with a pandemic without personal protective there?
(17:05):
Which I don't know if PPE was something that you
guys knew the acronym for a month ago. No, I
absolutely didn't like that's become such a but yeah, I
didn't know. And then you did you use the phrase reuse?
(17:26):
Oh right, now, there is PPE. But it's a reused situation.
You you're given a little brown bag, a paper brown
bag that you are kind of reusing indefinitely um n
and surgical mass, and you know, if it's gets absolutely soiled,
(17:50):
saturated and the integrity is to the point that it
needs to be thrown away, that is your decision, and
individually on if you want to throw it away, no
guarantee on if you will get a replacement. So that's frightening,
frightening stuff. And one thing I did want to ask
(18:15):
you is how are you taking care of yourself during
all of this. Oh my gosh, I'm listening to you guys.
I'm such a podcast lover. Yeah, I know you guys
are doing some great things. I'm watching all this stuff
you guys are doing, the doing the like little dancing.
(18:35):
I haven't listened to the yoga one. I you guys
are speaking my love language. I don't know whose idea
was to pitch the music the playlist, but I loved
when you guys had posted, Oh, let's do like a
column playlist, Let's do like a get up and dance playlist. Um.
(18:57):
I love that. I absolutely love that. Um. I felt
like that was so so, so cute, and then I
like listening to the playlist. Um, the calm one. I
know you posted I didn't. I don't know if you
posted that yet. It's coming in. Thank you for there.
I definitely have it already. I had to get any
(19:18):
to send me a list last time. She sent me
a list of thirty songs and I was like, okay,
Samantha's like only sent five and I'm like, well you,
son of There's there's a lot happening though, like on
social media that is innovative that I have loved. The
(19:39):
other day, I said this day, Anie, there's this guy
that he does um ema is not dead and he
did a quarantine bow and I got in there on
accident and he called out my name. I was like,
oh my god. Of course he did. Of course he did.
But with that, Marissa, what would you say is something
that you win ish us as the people who do
(20:02):
not know what's going on? Really, we we can get
a little reports here and there, we get little snippets
of truths about what is really happening in the hospitals,
what is happening in care and medical fields. Well, does
some things that you wish we knew and more people
would know, and more people would consider. I really think
that social distancing is really doing a world of good
(20:24):
for us. I mean, as far as I think we
are flattening the curve, I mean, the only thing that
I would say is as far as like the hospital
wise goes, really truly be using the e er when
your symptoms are unmanageable at home. If you're sick, you
(20:49):
need to quarantine, you need to not go out in public.
You need to treat yourself as you're sick and consider
yourself positive. M I think there's a lot of people
that they start having just a little bit of symptoms
and they come immediately with very mild symptoms and they're
(21:15):
they're not thinking that start to treat the symptoms at
home and come to us when it's unmanageable. And anybody
that's coming into the hospital, I think a really good
advice for them would be make sure that you know
where you stand with what you want for your care,
(21:38):
because we're going to ask you the tough questions, especially
if you meet our admission criteria. You need to know
where you stand on if you want to be intimated
and if you get to that point, and if your
hard work stop working, if you would want to be resuscitated. Um,
(22:00):
So you really need to start having those conversations and
thinking about them now rather than being called or your
family member being called because you can no longer make
that decision, and knowing what you want, to make sure
you're sharing that without others that would be potentially called
(22:21):
as an emergency contact. Just good to know. Yeah, And
I think there's just so much like fear and confusion
and since I can't get tested and we don't know. Yeah,
I was gonna ask have you as a staff when
the hospital because Obviously, there's a conversation that's been going
around that there's no real numbers on how many hospital
(22:41):
staff or people who are in the emergency room medical field,
including those who may just be there for social work
care or being social workers, or people who are maintenance
or office closers or whatever, are they able to get
testing because there's no numbers about how it has affected
the people on quote unquote the frontline. And I'm just
gonna for your perspective or as like at the your hospital,
(23:03):
I guess. So anybody that's getting admitted to the hospital
gets tested, especially if they're showing fever and respiratory symptoms. UM.
Also if you were a healthcare worker and you were
symptomatic not necessarily meeting admission, they will test. And then
(23:24):
anybody that's in some kind of communal um living situation,
whether it be a nursing home, a group home, or
homeless shelter like living situation. UM. These are people that
are healthcare workers and those that are living in a
communal living like situation could potentially expose several others UM.
(23:48):
So it is being allowed. There is a lay in
testing right now for us. It's UM about seventy two
hours for the test to come back. I know. I
was talking to one of my nurse practitioner friends yesterday
who is working in Georgia, and she was saying it
was more like five to seven days in Georgia from
(24:09):
what she knew, which by then you may be done
with the virus, which is what's been happening. A lot
people thought they had it. They found that later they
did have it. Yeah. I do know a doctor um
and a nurse that I was talking to the other
night that they had gone through the virus. I don't
(24:30):
think either of them actually win and got a test though.
They just they had all the symptoms. They had the fever,
they had the shortness of brut they just quarantined and
dealt with at home. I know the doc was telling
me he had a little pull sock cimetar and he's
checking what his oxygen level is versus like you know
(24:54):
where your mind goes in anxiety, you know, oh absolutely, Yeah.
We have a little bit more for you listeners, But
first we have one more quick break for work from
our sponsor and her back. Thank you sponsor. But if you, like,
(25:22):
as a nurse, say you were exposed, then what happens.
Did they just tell you to go home or do
you keep working? Okay, Um, they do temperature checks when
we're coming into the hospital. Anybody coming into the hospital, hospital, worker, visitor, patient,
everybody is strained with a temperature check. So there have
(25:47):
been people that work in the hospital that just with
that screening have been found to have a fever and
are sent home immediately, and they do not work. If
you're coming in for your shift and you have a fever,
you're going to be working that day. But yeah, we're
supposed to alert them, you know, if we start getting
symptomatic or especially start running a fever. Um. It's a
(26:12):
little different for me because I am a contract worker. Um,
So not only do I have to like notify the
hospital book, and I also have to notify my agency.
My agency is the one that pays me, and they
have an agreement that they will be paying anybody that
has to quarantine for two weeks. So I have that reassurance.
(26:37):
That's good, but yeah, I deserve it too because hello,
yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. Occupational health has called me and
told me like when somebody I've treated has been positive.
But they started to do that and then she didn't
tell me that pretty much if I, you know, symptomatic,
(27:01):
to let them know the way the covids are kind
of being monitored as far as positives and who's been exposed.
Um you actually like starting out e er have symptoms,
You get like droplet precautions, contact precautions taped to your door,
(27:22):
and then you have a sign and she taped in.
Everybody that's going in and out has to like they
have to write, you know, time in, time out, name,
phone number, what's your employee number? And that's how they're
tracking the contact time for these patients is you're signing
(27:43):
in and out. So do you have any any advice
to someone who might be like training to be a
nurse or is a new nurse and has sort of
been thrown into this whole thing, or maybe just people
who are who are feeling burnt out or stressed during
(28:04):
this very stressful time. For sure, Like first off, like
you need a mute all the negative people in your life.
You know, you you have to take every piece of
advice and with a grain of salt, especially within nursing
for sure, and just keep on keeping on trying not
(28:25):
to get completely like bogged down and the overwhelming stress
of it all. Take those moments to breathe. I can't
imagine being a new grid nurse in this the last
couple of weeks, I've been used more as a resource
(28:48):
nurse and kind of been like a a float nurse
and pretty much hopping here and there. And the other
day I was helping somebody startled for the first time
and showing her how to set it up. Been I
just like it was. I was like, this is the
first time she's ever done this before. There's so many
people that are like pulling me into situations because they've
(29:09):
got you know, a handful a good handful of new
grad nurses and the e er and they're really like
great troopers. They're doing fantastic no fear in a way.
I'm so impressed by these new grads that are coming
in and just running right there with us that have
(29:33):
been doing it for a while. You know, as you
were saying that, I didn't even think about the fact that, yes,
you're bringing in new people, more people to help, but
you're taking away the experienced people to train these people.
So it's not necessarily as helpful as you think, because
the people who could be out there who have that
experience already doing it is having to be pulled aside
(29:54):
to attend and make sure things are being correctly done,
are completed. So that's a whole different level of is
as helpful as you think it is. That was never
actually crossed my mind as much as other experience. How
are they going to do this? Yeah? Yeah, well, and
you know, the the real concern right now is like
(30:15):
I see you being so overwhelmed. And I don't know
if you've heard about this, but they were talking about
potentially doing like team nursing where they need more I
see you nurses and like quickly training people that are
med surge te limitary nurses and having like an I
C nurse potentially team nurse and oversea med serge nurses.
(30:40):
They haven't started it, you know. Here, it's just a
potential like thinking process and treason process on how can
we have more nurses in the I see you for
these vented patients? Mm hmm. Yeah. Just I want to say,
because when we were talking about any and I were
(31:03):
talking about some of the experiences you've been having, Thank
you so much for coming on and talking about it
and for what you're doing as well. I hate that
you're not being given the proper equipment to do the
job efficiently as well as honestly, the correct information is
being set out, so y'all are not harassed inappropriately and
(31:24):
or being disrespected in any way. But yeah, thank you
so much for whatever thing you're doing. And good. So
you're going to Massachusetts next week? Yeah, Massachusetts is my
next contract next week. And oh, I will have to
say a shout out to any body that is actually
(31:44):
housing a travel nurse right now. We really appreciate you
because that is actually a scary thing for somebody potentially
housing a travel nurse and knowing that they are probably
going to be exposed, um, whether and if you're allowing
them into your home. It's something that you know. I
(32:07):
thank god found a woman in masks that would rent
a room to me, and we've talked about our procedure
on how we're going to handle things, um as far
as keeping things clean, and I will be changing my
scrubs before I come into her home and she's going
to be wearing a mask while I am there if
(32:30):
I'm up. Um, we've got a whole procedure that we've
worked out. But anybody that's housing like a travel nurse
right now. Thank you so much for housing us. We
really do appreciate it so much because shelter is the
basis for our Maslow's higher camp needs. Yes, yes, um yeah.
(32:54):
All the respects um to you and what you're doing
and to every bit in the health care field and
everybody making this world like potentially exposing themselves so that
we can continue to live. So yeah, really, thank you.
You guys are like my friends while I'm away from home,
(33:14):
when I'm on a travel assignment. Just to hear a
friendly voice, I I feel like, you know, I I'm
home in a way and I'm right there with you.
And even even even though me and Annie have our history, Samantha,
you have the most soulful, soothing voice, and I look
forward so much to hearing your perspective as a social worker.
(33:39):
I'm like, I know what she's seen. E er. We
deal with a lot of social issues and I really
love to hear your perspective on everything because it as
such a deut We're friends to definitely hung out, We're definitely,
we're definitely there. Yeah. Oh yeah, it feels like a
(34:01):
big more from from Afar a self distancing virtual hugs yeah,
all right, Well, thank you so much um for joining us, Merissa,
and I'm sure we'll be checking in and making sure
you're okay. UM. And yeah, if if any listeners would
(34:25):
like to email us, you can. Our email is Stuff Media,
mom Stuff at I heart media dot com. You can
find us on Instagram at Stuff I've Never Told You
or on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast. Thanks as always
to our super producer Andrew Howard, and thanks to you
for listening Stuff I've Never Told You the protection of
I Heart Radio. For more podcast on my heart radio
(34:45):
is the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to stuff
I ever told to you protection of I Heart Radio,
and today we are so happy to be joined by
my good friend and great supporter. Thank you so much
(00:29):
for being with Usressa. Before we get started, listeners, we
did want to add in a quick trigger warning for
this episode because we are going to be talking about
COVID nineteen and what is happening inside hospitals and emergency rooms,
and we're not going to get to graphic in anything,
but totally understand if that is triggering right now. So
(00:52):
can you introduce yourself to the listeners. So, Hi, I'm Marissa.
I am an ear nurse. I'm a travel nurse. I
have been a nurse for eight and a half years.
I have traveled to seven different states and I am
currently working in a er in Connecticut. Yes, and Mercea
(01:15):
and I we have been friends since seventh grade. Yeah.
We met over Harry Potter Bolder that I was very
impressed with, and so I came up and I was like,
we're going to be friends. True story. My entire sixth
grade year, I hadn't actually like talked to anybody. I
(01:38):
had just moved to the County in sixth grade and
seventh grade was a pivotal year. If you talked to
our fab five of friends, everybody has a story of
Annie being our common link, and usually Harry Potter was
somehow involved. Oh yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So the reason we
(02:01):
wanted to bring you on here is because you are
a nurse, and right now with our our quarantine and
this whole COVID nineteen thing, we thought it would be
cool to have a conversation with you about the types
of things that you are seeing. But maybe before we
(02:21):
get into that, um, can you talk about when did
you know that you wanted to be a nurse? Annie?
I might actually have you like help me remember what
this class was called back in middle school, but there
was um like a career class career opportunities or something
like that. And I remember like looking through this like
(02:44):
occupational handbook and projections you know, for the next twenty years,
and just like flipping through this book and like looking
at nursing and healthcare and I kind of had always
has been drawn to like medical healthcare profession and then
(03:06):
I knew it. Actually thirteen years old, I wanted to
be a travel nurse, and so that was always the goal.
It took me a long time to feel confident enough
in my skills to travel. I started off, I did
one year in med Surge and then I transferred to
the EAR and then I had been in the e
ER for an additional like four years before I started traveling,
(03:29):
so I had five years under my belt before I
started traveling for the last four years, but I always
wanted to know I've always been like a nurturer. I
am the oldest of three children, and I'm also the
oldest of like all of the cousins on my mother's side,
so I've kind of always fallen into that nurturing caregiver role.
(03:50):
It comes very natural to me to be a nurse.
That's awesome. Yeah, um, and I hearing your stories, I
hear that nurturing side a lot, but I also hear
this very strong like take charge, this is what needs
to be done, and kind kind of seeing that aspect
(04:12):
of it as well. Oh yeah, definitely have some of
it has come. Like the more you're put into that
role for sure with nursing, to just like you gotta
step up and get the job done. But yeah, I
you know, in the e ER, you definitely have to
be able to be calm in amidst of chaos, and
(04:36):
that calmness also has come natural to me. The reason
why I like the r though specifically within nursing, is
there is a big team work approach within the e ER.
You've got like all the services that are collaborating together.
You've got the relationship between the nurses and the doctors
(04:58):
is very collaborative. You've got r TIE, you've got radiology.
Everybody's there. So I've always really liked DR and the
team work that happens there. And you kind of have
to be able to be a good communicator in those roles.
I'm sure so you you and I have been. We're
(05:19):
doing our virtual hangouts are virtual happy hours. Yeah, and
we've been talking kind of about what you've seen during
this pandemic. Can you go into that a little bit.
I Am not going to be graphic, but yeah, the
(05:42):
last time we had talked um it was about a
week ago and it still I will consider it a
very lacious shift with COVID nineteen. What you're seeing as
far as symptoms, a lot of people are and I'm
sure some of this may be already knowledgeable to you guys.
(06:05):
Is that you're seeing a lot of shortness of breath
and then like a cough, hypoxemia, which is just a
low oxygen level, fever, sometimes chills, just generally filling weak.
But there's just a lot I think happened that particular
(06:26):
shift where I had just previously read three days prior
from one of the New York doctors was like, this
is what we know so far, and they had posted
something and it had been shared by a lot of
people within like the medical community, and he had talked
about how he was seeing these oxygen saturations with the
(06:52):
hypoxemia of people averaging and it wasn't necessarily a time
to call the ICU if you saw those percentages and
that these people would be talking to you with like
really low oxygen levels. And I hadn't at the time,
like we've seen low oxygen levels for sure, but it
(07:16):
was it was wild to walk in that particular night
and having people like so many people that were low
oxygen level. And I mean, we will do what people
want to be done for them as far as supportive
(07:36):
care with oxygen, but for the first time you're seeing
people like really having to ask how much intervention medical
intervention do you want with your care. Do you want
to be resuscitated, do you want to be intimated? Do
you want comfort measures only? And that was one of
those nights that there was a big shift as far
(07:59):
as from going to from somewhat of an e ER
mode to almost a hospice mode, which I do have
some experience and as well, I think one of the
questions that we are these things like what from your
perspective do you see that is happening that might be
different from the media sharing or that might be under exaggerated,
(08:22):
over exaggerated. Can you kind of talk about that as
a personal eyewitnessing in the e ER. Is it overwhelmed
because people are paranoid, like what? Or is it underwhelmed
that people aren't getting what they need? So at first,
the in the first couple of weeks, it was it
was dead, like I would say, for like a week
(08:43):
and a half almost yeah, week and a half, when
everybody kind of started going into like you know, stay
at home and lockdown mode, it was completely dead. Other
than truly emergencies. People were scared to come in, as
they should be, because when you come into the e
R you could be possibly exposed because every e R
(09:10):
in the country has COVID nineteen patients that they're seeing
their admitting definitely, But there was a good week and
a half where we really, like all of a sudden,
saw a huge trend down from the other like miscellaneous
like people that we usually have some flow of we're gone,
(09:36):
and so it was it was odd to be like, Okay,
so this is what the emergency looked like, should look
like if the emergency room was just used for emergency purposes.
So we saw a lot of minor care stuff go
completely away, So that was different. It did pick up.
(09:56):
I think one of the great things that I saw
this particular hospital will do is that they really streamlined
their flow for getting people admitted better, and they started
making room and really thinking outside the box on how
the ear wouldn't get congested. So I don't know if
(10:17):
that made things easier, but as far as just like
what I've seen so far, that we did have a
period of time where like there was nothing so just
out of curiosity, you are a travel nurse, did you
already explain kind of what that is for the audience
(10:37):
so they understand when we are asking you questions specific
to that level of nursing. Okay, so travel nursing. What
that is is I go to hospitals that need staffing help,
which is anywhere in the in the United States and
the country, and they're prior to even COVID nineteen there
(11:01):
was a nursing shortage. So I do have a compact
nursing license. Um, it's good in thirty four states. UM.
Then you can also apply if you have a nursing license,
like which my home state where I, you know, originally
am graduated from, like a Georgia nursing school, then you
(11:23):
can say, I, you know, I took my nursing license
in the state of Georgia. UM. And you can do
license by endorsement to get those states that are not
part of the compact. Georgia is part of the compact.
So whatever state you're in for your original nursing license,
that has to be part of the compact. That state
(11:45):
has to be part of the compact. So say like
California is not part of the compact. Um, So any
nurse that was originally got their nursing license in California,
they would have to individually like apply, okay to get
a nursing license in a different state, right And you've
been to several states. Yeah, so I have been to
(12:06):
seven different states. Um, I've worked in the state of Georgia.
Then from Georgia, I went to Massachusetts. From Massachusetts, California
to l A and then I did Alaska, Colorado, did
several more in California, then came back to Maine and
then Connecticut. So seven and so that was wondering with
(12:29):
the fact that you are a travel nurse. Has there
been an influx of nurses being pulled out of different
states to other states to help in this emergency situation?
Or is it that every state is in an emergency situation?
So where you are is where you are. Every states
in an emergency situation right now. Every nurse also can
(12:49):
make that decision if they want to choose to hop
to a different state contract. Because it's my medical world.
I don't know how much of this is public knowledge
to you guys, because you know it's the world I
live in. But they like have kind of dropped a
(13:10):
lot of the rules with the like the Nursing Compact
for certain states are having to have a particular license.
I'm actually just about to finish my contract here in Connecticut.
This is my last week on this contract and then
my next contract starts next week. Um, and I'll be
(13:33):
going to mass Massachusetts. When I was making that decision,
Massachusetts is not part of the compact. I had to
apply to get a license two days later. Massachusetts like says,
if you have a license in any state will take you.
You don't have to pay the hundred and seventy dollar
(13:56):
feed to get our license. It's it's neat and states
completely like, oh, this a nominal fee. We no longer
are requiring it. Like, if you have a license, come
on down. We have some more for you listeners, But
first we have a quick break for a word from
our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsor. So can
(14:31):
you tell us as a person who was in the hospital,
in the front lines, as you are called, and being
held a hero? Which is really problematic in my mind,
and in describing these things as a war speak, because
when you do that, not only are you saying these
people are willing to sacrifice themselves, which is not necessarily
the case. Willing to help people is one thing, but
(14:52):
saying that you're on the front line in a war
that could kill you, it is a whole different world
and a whole different conversation, especially not being compensated as either,
are being almost not recognized as such. And what are
your I guess your feelings. How are you feeling with
the fact that you are on the front line, you
are in an area that's highly contagious and likely that
(15:12):
you are being exposed to people who are infected with COVID.
I love how you how you phrase that question, because
the whole thought around you're a hero, I feel like,
does almost pressure you to have that feeling of that
nurses and doctors should be murders, but we're not in
(15:35):
any way. Pepe is a huge issue for sure, and
the fact that you know everywhere is in a crisis
with PPE and getting the correct pepe and in a
reuse in definite position is giving that feel of like,
(15:59):
you know, you're having to make this choice on you know,
if you're going to care for this patient and put
your life potentially on the line being exposed to a virus.
I mean, there was this post the other day by
another traveler, her name's E. M. Chain. She I think
(16:22):
phrase that probably the best in this post, and it
really spoke to me. I'm gonna paraphrase it because I
don't remember it exactly, but she started it off with
personal protective gear. Would you send a firefighter into a
fire without personal protective here? Would you send a police
(16:45):
officer into a shooting without personal protective gear? Then why
would you expect healthcare workers to go in to our
own shooting and deal with a pandemic without personal protective there?
(17:05):
Which I don't know if PPE was something that you
guys knew the acronym for a month ago. No, I
absolutely didn't like that's become such a but yeah, I
didn't know. And then you did you use the phrase reuse?
(17:26):
Oh right, now, there is PPE. But it's a reused situation.
You you're given a little brown bag, a paper brown
bag that you are kind of reusing indefinitely um n
and surgical mass, and you know, if it's gets absolutely soiled,
(17:50):
saturated and the integrity is to the point that it
needs to be thrown away, that is your decision, and
individually on if you want to throw it away, no
guarantee on if you will get a replacement. So that's frightening,
frightening stuff. And one thing I did want to ask
(18:15):
you is how are you taking care of yourself during
all of this. Oh my gosh, I'm listening to you guys.
I'm such a podcast lover. Yeah, I know you guys
are doing some great things. I'm watching all this stuff
you guys are doing, the doing the like little dancing.
(18:35):
I haven't listened to the yoga one. I you guys
are speaking my love language. I don't know whose idea
was to pitch the music the playlist, but I loved
when you guys had posted, Oh, let's do like a
column playlist, Let's do like a get up and dance playlist. Um.
(18:57):
I love that. I absolutely love that. Um. I felt
like that was so so, so cute, and then I
like listening to the playlist. Um, the calm one. I
know you posted I didn't. I don't know if you
posted that yet. It's coming in. Thank you for there.
I definitely have it already. I had to get any
(19:18):
to send me a list last time. She sent me
a list of thirty songs and I was like, okay,
Samantha's like only sent five and I'm like, well you,
son of There's there's a lot happening though, like on
social media that is innovative that I have loved. The
(19:39):
other day, I said this day, Anie, there's this guy
that he does um ema is not dead and he
did a quarantine bow and I got in there on
accident and he called out my name. I was like,
oh my god. Of course he did. Of course he did.
But with that, Marissa, what would you say is something
that you win ish us as the people who do
(20:02):
not know what's going on? Really, we we can get
a little reports here and there, we get little snippets
of truths about what is really happening in the hospitals,
what is happening in care and medical fields. Well, does
some things that you wish we knew and more people
would know, and more people would consider. I really think
that social distancing is really doing a world of good
(20:24):
for us. I mean, as far as I think we
are flattening the curve, I mean, the only thing that
I would say is as far as like the hospital
wise goes, really truly be using the e er when
your symptoms are unmanageable at home. If you're sick, you
(20:49):
need to quarantine, you need to not go out in public.
You need to treat yourself as you're sick and consider
yourself positive. M I think there's a lot of people
that they start having just a little bit of symptoms
and they come immediately with very mild symptoms and they're
(21:15):
they're not thinking that start to treat the symptoms at
home and come to us when it's unmanageable. And anybody
that's coming into the hospital, I think a really good
advice for them would be make sure that you know
where you stand with what you want for your care,
(21:38):
because we're going to ask you the tough questions, especially
if you meet our admission criteria. You need to know
where you stand on if you want to be intimated
and if you get to that point, and if your
hard work stop working, if you would want to be resuscitated. Um,
(22:00):
So you really need to start having those conversations and
thinking about them now rather than being called or your
family member being called because you can no longer make
that decision, and knowing what you want, to make sure
you're sharing that without others that would be potentially called
(22:21):
as an emergency contact. Just good to know. Yeah, And
I think there's just so much like fear and confusion
and since I can't get tested and we don't know. Yeah,
I was gonna ask have you as a staff when
the hospital because Obviously, there's a conversation that's been going
around that there's no real numbers on how many hospital
(22:41):
staff or people who are in the emergency room medical field,
including those who may just be there for social work
care or being social workers, or people who are maintenance
or office closers or whatever, are they able to get
testing because there's no numbers about how it has affected
the people on quote unquote the frontline. And I'm just
gonna for your perspective or as like at the your hospital,
(23:03):
I guess. So anybody that's getting admitted to the hospital
gets tested, especially if they're showing fever and respiratory symptoms. UM.
Also if you were a healthcare worker and you were
symptomatic not necessarily meeting admission, they will test. And then
(23:24):
anybody that's in some kind of communal um living situation,
whether it be a nursing home, a group home, or
homeless shelter like living situation. UM. These are people that
are healthcare workers and those that are living in a
communal living like situation could potentially expose several others UM.
(23:48):
So it is being allowed. There is a lay in
testing right now for us. It's UM about seventy two
hours for the test to come back. I know. I
was talking to one of my nurse practitioner friends yesterday
who is working in Georgia, and she was saying it
was more like five to seven days in Georgia from
(24:09):
what she knew, which by then you may be done
with the virus, which is what's been happening. A lot
people thought they had it. They found that later they
did have it. Yeah. I do know a doctor um
and a nurse that I was talking to the other
night that they had gone through the virus. I don't
(24:30):
think either of them actually win and got a test though.
They just they had all the symptoms. They had the fever,
they had the shortness of brut they just quarantined and
dealt with at home. I know the doc was telling
me he had a little pull sock cimetar and he's
checking what his oxygen level is versus like you know
(24:54):
where your mind goes in anxiety, you know, oh absolutely, Yeah.
We have a little bit more for you listeners, But
first we have one more quick break for work from
our sponsor and her back. Thank you sponsor. But if you, like,
(25:22):
as a nurse, say you were exposed, then what happens.
Did they just tell you to go home or do
you keep working? Okay, Um, they do temperature checks when
we're coming into the hospital. Anybody coming into the hospital, hospital, worker, visitor, patient,
everybody is strained with a temperature check. So there have
(25:47):
been people that work in the hospital that just with
that screening have been found to have a fever and
are sent home immediately, and they do not work. If
you're coming in for your shift and you have a fever,
you're going to be working that day. But yeah, we're
supposed to alert them, you know, if we start getting
symptomatic or especially start running a fever. Um. It's a
(26:12):
little different for me because I am a contract worker. Um,
So not only do I have to like notify the
hospital book, and I also have to notify my agency.
My agency is the one that pays me, and they
have an agreement that they will be paying anybody that
has to quarantine for two weeks. So I have that reassurance.
(26:37):
That's good, but yeah, I deserve it too because hello,
yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. Occupational health has called me and
told me like when somebody I've treated has been positive.
But they started to do that and then she didn't
tell me that pretty much if I, you know, symptomatic,
(27:01):
to let them know the way the covids are kind
of being monitored as far as positives and who's been exposed.
Um you actually like starting out e er have symptoms,
You get like droplet precautions, contact precautions taped to your door,
(27:22):
and then you have a sign and she taped in.
Everybody that's going in and out has to like they
have to write, you know, time in, time out, name,
phone number, what's your employee number? And that's how they're
tracking the contact time for these patients is you're signing
(27:43):
in and out. So do you have any any advice
to someone who might be like training to be a
nurse or is a new nurse and has sort of
been thrown into this whole thing, or maybe just people
who are who are feeling burnt out or stressed during
(28:04):
this very stressful time. For sure, Like first off, like
you need a mute all the negative people in your life.
You know, you you have to take every piece of
advice and with a grain of salt, especially within nursing
for sure, and just keep on keeping on trying not
(28:25):
to get completely like bogged down and the overwhelming stress
of it all. Take those moments to breathe. I can't
imagine being a new grid nurse in this the last
couple of weeks, I've been used more as a resource
(28:48):
nurse and kind of been like a a float nurse
and pretty much hopping here and there. And the other
day I was helping somebody startled for the first time
and showing her how to set it up. Been I
just like it was. I was like, this is the
first time she's ever done this before. There's so many
people that are like pulling me into situations because they've
(29:09):
got you know, a handful a good handful of new
grad nurses and the e er and they're really like
great troopers. They're doing fantastic no fear in a way.
I'm so impressed by these new grads that are coming
in and just running right there with us that have
(29:33):
been doing it for a while. You know, as you
were saying that, I didn't even think about the fact that, yes,
you're bringing in new people, more people to help, but
you're taking away the experienced people to train these people.
So it's not necessarily as helpful as you think, because
the people who could be out there who have that
experience already doing it is having to be pulled aside
(29:54):
to attend and make sure things are being correctly done,
are completed. So that's a whole different level of is
as helpful as you think it is. That was never
actually crossed my mind as much as other experience. How
are they going to do this? Yeah? Yeah, well, and
you know, the the real concern right now is like
(30:15):
I see you being so overwhelmed. And I don't know
if you've heard about this, but they were talking about
potentially doing like team nursing where they need more I
see you nurses and like quickly training people that are
med surge te limitary nurses and having like an I
C nurse potentially team nurse and oversea med serge nurses.
(30:40):
They haven't started it, you know. Here, it's just a
potential like thinking process and treason process on how can
we have more nurses in the I see you for
these vented patients? Mm hmm. Yeah. Just I want to say,
because when we were talking about any and I were
(31:03):
talking about some of the experiences you've been having, Thank
you so much for coming on and talking about it
and for what you're doing as well. I hate that
you're not being given the proper equipment to do the
job efficiently as well as honestly, the correct information is
being set out, so y'all are not harassed inappropriately and
(31:24):
or being disrespected in any way. But yeah, thank you
so much for whatever thing you're doing. And good. So
you're going to Massachusetts next week? Yeah, Massachusetts is my
next contract next week. And oh, I will have to
say a shout out to any body that is actually
(31:44):
housing a travel nurse right now. We really appreciate you
because that is actually a scary thing for somebody potentially
housing a travel nurse and knowing that they are probably
going to be exposed, um, whether and if you're allowing
them into your home. It's something that you know. I
(32:07):
thank god found a woman in masks that would rent
a room to me, and we've talked about our procedure
on how we're going to handle things, um as far
as keeping things clean, and I will be changing my
scrubs before I come into her home and she's going
to be wearing a mask while I am there if
(32:30):
I'm up. Um, we've got a whole procedure that we've
worked out. But anybody that's housing like a travel nurse
right now. Thank you so much for housing us. We
really do appreciate it so much because shelter is the
basis for our Maslow's higher camp needs. Yes, yes, um yeah.
(32:54):
All the respects um to you and what you're doing
and to every bit in the health care field and
everybody making this world like potentially exposing themselves so that
we can continue to live. So yeah, really, thank you.
You guys are like my friends while I'm away from home,
(33:14):
when I'm on a travel assignment. Just to hear a
friendly voice, I I feel like, you know, I I'm
home in a way and I'm right there with you.
And even even even though me and Annie have our history, Samantha,
you have the most soulful, soothing voice, and I look
forward so much to hearing your perspective as a social worker.
(33:39):
I'm like, I know what she's seen. E er. We
deal with a lot of social issues and I really
love to hear your perspective on everything because it as
such a deut We're friends to definitely hung out, We're definitely,
we're definitely there. Yeah. Oh yeah, it feels like a
(34:01):
big more from from Afar a self distancing virtual hugs yeah,
all right, Well, thank you so much um for joining us, Merissa,
and I'm sure we'll be checking in and making sure
you're okay. UM. And yeah, if if any listeners would
(34:25):
like to email us, you can. Our email is Stuff Media,
mom Stuff at I heart media dot com. You can
find us on Instagram at Stuff I've Never Told You
or on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast. Thanks as always
to our super producer Andrew Howard, and thanks to you
for listening Stuff I've Never Told You the protection of
I Heart Radio. For more podcast on my heart radio
(34:45):
is the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows
Stuff Mom Never Told You News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Samantha McVey
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