What’s going on in Columbus ERs during COVID? Here’s what one nurse has to say
There have been times during the pandemic when it is difficult for Chamaine Bjornson, a registered nurse in Piedmont Columbus Regional’s emergency department, to manage her mental health.
It isn’t easy to see some patients enter the hospital and not leave again. Sometimes she brings out iPads, so patients can FaceTime with family members. One day with a full emergency room and no iPads left, she gave her personal cell phone to a patient to talk to their family before they were intubated.
There’s resiliency in Bjornson. She’s a former service member, and has worked as an ER nurse for five years.
“I have a little more thicker skin, I think,” she said. “And I’m able to kind of just deal with things a little easier.”
The latest COVID surge has added a new layer of strain on local hospitals. Bjornson describes seeing younger patients, the more lethal delta variant and “pandemic fatigue” causing the emergency room to fill and stay filled.
Muscogee County officials continue to urge residents to get vaccinated, but they continue to encourage those who need emergency care to go to the hospital.
Number of patients have skyrocketed
Piedmont Columbus Regional’s emergency department remains extremely busy, however the trauma center currently has some flexibility with capacity, Jack Rodgers, director of emergency services, said in an email to the Ledger-Enquirer. The Pediatric ER and the Northside ER are at or near capacity.
Managing emergency services amid the latest wave of cases has been made more difficult due to what Bjornson calls, “pandemic fatigue.” People avoided coming to the hospital during the first round of COVID-19 because they were concerned about catching the virus, she said. They didn’t come in for little bumps, bruises and scrapes.
Rodgers said since people were scared of catching the virus before, there was room and plenty of resources available for the care of COVID patients. Now that COVID is a part of everyday life, it’s ‘another thing’ people have to deal with, he said.
“So, our typical patient population has come back,” Rodgers said. “Add the new COVID surge to that and the number of patients seen a day have skyrocketed.”
Since Piedmont has limited intensive care beds — and ER nurses are able to care for critical patients — the patients tend to stay in the ER longer, Bjornson said. This means most of the main side rooms are full of patients who are on ventilators and life supporting machines.
Because COVID patients are filling the side rooms, that leaves “maybe 10 beds” for nurses like Bjornson to treat new patients.
“That does tend to bottleneck things a bit more for us,” she said.
Things in the emergency department and in the community will get better when more people get vaccinated, Rodgers said. If someone doesn’t want to get the vaccine, they should wear a mask, wash their hands, and social distance.
A privilege to hold their hand
She’s treating a lot more people in their 30s and 40s who are critically ill, Bjornson said.
However, there’s no way to know if it’s because of a difference in the newer strains of the virus or simply because COVID is more prevalent in the overall population, Rodgers said.
“I am confident in saying that a very large majority of the sickest COVID patients, especially those currently on ventilators, have not been vaccinated,” he said.
Despite the constant stream of bad news that has come throughout the pandemic, she treasures the success stories when she hears them. Working in the ER, Bjornson doesn’t always get to find out how the story ends with patients.
There was one woman during the first round of COVID who was Bjornson’s mother’s age. The woman’s family had also been sick, but while they recovered well, the woman did not. She made improvements in a rehab facility, before taking another step back.
It was sad, but also a privilege, for Bjornson to take care of her again. Since the woman’s family couldn’t be with her during that time, Bjornson was there to hold the woman’s hand, speak with her, pray with her and hold out the phone so the family could talk to her.
The experience “made a big impact” on the nurse.
Sometimes COVID patients can have scary symptoms from the beginning, Bjornson said.
“They look miserable, they feel miserable, they have a fever, they have a cough,” she said. “But when I hook them up to get their vital signs, something that always triggers me is that their heart rates are usually very high.”
Additionally, COVID patients’ oxygen levels can be as low as 70%, when she’s expecting them to be around 100%, Bjornson said.
The next step is trying to carve out a spot for the patients where staff can keep an eye on them. The scariest thing about treating a COVID patient is that they can come in walking and talking and begin to feel better after being put on oxygen, but their oxygen levels can go downhill fast, she said.
When they get to the point where they can no longer breathe for themselves, nurses have to support scared patients .
“Also, the reality is that you might put them on this ventilator, and they might not come off,” Bjornson said. “So, that can be very difficult to deal with. It’s definitely different than any other emergency room patients that I’ve seen.”
COVID-19 is not like the flu, she said. Bjornson was a nurse through H1N1 and the spread of other viruses, but the COVID-19 pandemic is beyond anything that she’s ever seen.
“Family members really want nothing more than to be there with their sick family members and they can’t,” she said. “And I know that causes a lot of anxiety and a lot of fear for them.”
‘Go and save lives’
Support from the local community has been fantastic, Rodgers, the director of emergency services, said. Meals are delivered, cards are sent and groups occasionally gather in the parking lot during shift change times to cheer for team members. The support has softened the blow of physically and emotionally draining shifts, he said.
Morale among healthcare workers has taken a hit, and everyone is tired, Rodgers said.
“This COVID marathon has been going on for 19 months now and there’s still no finish line in sight,” he added. “Every single day, our teammates are working harder to take care of sicker patients.”
However, his team continues to smile and push forward with their work, he said.
Bjornson was concerned at the beginning of the pandemic about bringing the virus back home. Often, she and her family would socially distance or she would spend a lot of her time at work before going home and immediately showering.
Things are a little easier now since most of the family has been vaccinated; but their son is too young for a vaccine. She feels safer and more comfortable going home and spending time with her family.
Thinking about the support they’ve given her throughout the pandemic makes Bjornson get emotional.
“My children look at me and tell me, ‘Mama, it’s okay for you to go and save lives,’” she said. “And they’re okay with me going and doing that. They’re tough. They’re tough little kids.”
