COVID-19 • State of Staffing

March 27, 2020

They didn’t train for this.  The entire corps of them from nurses to doctors to techs and housekeepers.  They didn’t train for going blind into a battle with gaping holes in their armor.

We trained them to stand in the breach of a pandemic shielded by not just Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) but the strict rules for their use.

So they’re making it up as they go.  Trying to create bubbles of protections around each person in a rapidly devolving crisis.

The masks, the workload, the stress of every surface being toxic; every friend a possible break in the weak bubble of “clean” that you are trying to create around you.  And your bubble is impossibly fragile – nudging your glasses, the itch at the top of your mask, the need to pee.  Break the protocol and “tag – you are all it.”

But the fear is deeper.  Every healthcare worker also knows they may become infected and bring it home.  Kids, partners, parents are all at increased risk because work is not safe.  They are the riskiest part of their home’s “clean bubble”.

And home is not the same; it is harder.  The chores have increased – needing to educate the kids, cook and clean every meal, and maintain a family structure in the face of massive social change.  All the while knowing their work is in the center of a shit-storm with 2 squares of toilet paper apiece.   It is an impossible job.

It gets worse.  A lot worse.

In 6 months or so, a bunch of these folks are going to be burnt.  Not coming back.  Ever.  The divorce rate for these workers is going to rise.  Suicide, yep.  Illness and death from COVID-19, yep.  These events break people’s souls. Hurricane Katrina taught us that.

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Team-USA needs to step up for their healthcare providers.  They need all of us on the outside to fight for them on the inside.

I am yelling here.

They really need us to do stuff we normally do not want to do.  They are out of time.

We need to pay these folks.  Not just a lot; a shit-ton.  And not just the checks the rest of us are getting for staying home.  

Hazardous pay for all people on the frontlines of this epidemic must be part of this bailout.  Double time for hours worked plus combat pay.

We have money coming, but there is a lot of flexibility in how it is spent.  Healthcare workers need hotels so they don’t have to contaminate home, they need food prepared for their families, and every inch of support we can give them to keep their families afloat.

Call every representative you have, local, state, federal and … well  … you’ve been cooped up – express yourself.

Seriously – call them, or better yet, send handwritten snail mail.  That is the most personal and bites the hardest.

Bite them.  Bite them hard.  They need to listen.

The damage being done to healthcare workers will be unfathomable.  Paying them will make an astounding difference in managing their lives.

But it is equally important in respecting the degree of risk and difficulty of the task.  They have been cheated out of a fair fight and still show up every day.  We should pay for that.

I forgot – there is something else.  

(You’ll have to call your representatives back.  You’re getting better at this.  Think about writing.  Maybe in the voice of John or Abigail Adams.  Or Poe.)

We must also remove the fear of legal actions for all healthcare workers in this fight.

These folks are going to work well beyond the scope they ever they trained for.  It is no joke that your gynecologist may be the person putting a tube into your throat to breathe next week.  (Nursing will point them to the correct end of the table.)  None of these folks should ever face or even think about the legal repercussions of their actions.  We are way beyond that.

The legislature should seek to immediately cover all legal expenses for anyone “in theater”.  They should use every mechanism to indemnify workers from legal action.  Hospital personnel should be seen as working as “Good Samaritans” and legal protections should be designed as such.

And while you’re on the phone, burn off a bit of that cabin fever, you could talk about a couple more things. 

As we chew through the frontline staff, we are going to have to find people to fill the gap on the short term and we are going to need to replace a lot of those staff permanently for the next fight.

In the short term, thousands of former staff who have moved on from healthcare – nurses, techs, doctors – are in the wings with knowledge and experience that could be brought back for this fight.  Money could well bring some back, but these are professionals who are driven by empathy and compassion.  They are looking for leadership and a place they can be effective.

Tell your representative that every state agency that has licensure responsibilities should contact every active or inactive license and ask for a plan to help in this crisis. New Hampshire already did it.  Ask to see what these people can do for their community.  People are begging for leadership in this fight.

Looking a few months ahead, nursing schools and tech schools are going to need to increase enrollment.  The loss of healthcare workers will be a silent pandemic that will roll over the system over the next several years.

As the current group working this pandemic burns out, we must be proactive and start training a new group of healthcare providers.  We should waive all tuition costs for those who step up and provide an additional stipend to encourage enrollment.

To be very clear, the next pandemic is not waiting for humanity to get its act together.  We need to expand our powers very quickly.

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Team USA is out of time.

We need to ‘up-armor’ our healthcare system and find every possible solution, remove our historical biases, crush the boxes we’ve built so every solution is out there, all while fighting this crisis.  Chaos is going to be the price of failure here.

It is time for all of us to use our voice to protect these people.   Start by finding the phone and address of every representative that covers your area.

Then take a breath and advocate for your healthcare team.  Unload everything you are thinking and feeling about this situation but add solutions.  I’ve offered mine.

Healthcare workers are getting the snot kicked out of them and don’t have the time to do this work.

Make the call.

Write the letter; let it bite.

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If you would like to read more from me, you can find it at bigwordsmallworld.com.  Thanks.     -jurgen