“It’s definitely been a task.”Ĭalifornia desperately searches for more nurses and doctorsĬalifornia is searching for nurses, doctors and other medical staff, perhaps from as far away as Australia amid the coronavirus surge. “I just try to find that right time where all of my patients are OK for a couple of minutes and I can have someone help me watch my patients,” she said. It’s private enough but still close to her patients. However, she does not always have time to walk to the hospital’s lactation room and instead goes to a storage area in the break room. Escamilla said it’s not uncommon for staff to realize during their shifts they have not used the restroom or drunk water for two or three hours.Īmid all this, Escamilla is pumping breast milk for her baby. That includes fetching blankets or juice, drawing blood, retrieving medication from the pharmacy or blood from the blood bank and going to the laboratory for patient tests and results. Understaffing across departments has meant working double time, not just providing care for patients but also doing the tasks of support staff. “I think it’s getting a little better now that nurses have been kind of put in the spotlight with all of this during COVID, but I do feel that their misconception is they don’t think we’re doing enough.” " don’t see all of the moving parts that go on behind the care,” Escamilla said. If there’s not enough staff on a shift, it increases the load for everyone and means patients are waiting longer for hospital beds. They often are filing special “assigned over objection” forms, noting the intensified patient loads and work conditions. Ideally, she and other nurses would have no more than four patients to care for, but the increased need and understaffing have meant sometimes taking on five or six patients instead. The surge has kept Escamilla and her co-workers busy during all hours of their shifts. When she comes home, she changes in her garage and leaves her shoes there out of fear of passing anything on to her 8-month-old baby and 3-year-old toddler. Since returning, she’s often donned an N95 mask her entire shift and added even more hand-washing to her routines. Witnessing so much pain over the last year from the COVID-19 pandemic will likely take a major toll on healthcare workers’ mental health, experts say.įor Escamilla, she went back to work from maternity leave right before the summer Delta surge began. ‘I was just bawling in my PPE’: Surge fades, but anguish remains for healthcare workers The hospital has been holding town halls to provide as much information as possible to staff members about vaccination efforts. Once the California Department of Public Health’s policy on mandated vaccinations for health workers goes into effect at the end of the month, some will have to be let go if they refuse. Hessami said the staff has aimed to answer any concerns patients have about the efficacy and safety of the vaccines rather than simply telling them to get vaccinated.īut, Hessami says, he is most worried about potential understaffing if not enough doctors, nurses or housekeeping workers get vaccinated. The hospital has pushed to give at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine to as many patients as possible regardless of their reason for coming in. Sam Hessami, the hospital’s chief medical officer. The pace of COVID-19 vaccinations in Los Angeles County is so slow that there’s a risk of a “cycle of repeated surges every few months,” Los Angeles County’s public health director warns.Īt Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, the severely ill patients in the intensive care unit are unvaccinated, and an “overwhelming majority of them regret not getting the vaccine,” said Dr. That means getting more people vaccinated 27 with 20 hospitalizations for every 100,000 residents. 17 and also worse than San Diego County, which peaked on Aug. That’s 56% worse than the peak for the three-county coastal region of Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties, which recorded 18 hospitalizations for every 100,000 residents at its peak on Aug. 1, when 1,246 coronavirus-infected people were hospitalized, the equivalent of 28 hospitalizations for every 100,000 residents. The Inland Empire hit its peak of hospitalizations on Sept. Although the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations is gradually dropping, medical staff fear another surge if more people don’t get vaccinated before the autumn and winter cold and flu season. Escamilla works in the Inland Empire, where the Delta variant’s summer surge pummeled hospitals more than anywhere else in Southern California, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis.ĭoctors, nurses, technicians and other hospital support staff have endured daily pressure to take on more shifts amid burnout and understaffing.
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