During the COVID pandemic, we’ve heard the stories of hospitals being near capacity, ICU beds being full, family members dying alone, and other stories from the health care system that paints a bleak picture of working in those situations.
But, what is it really like as a nurse in the ICU?
News Talk 830 WCCO’s Susie Jones spoke to Hennepin Healthcare ICU nurse Heidi Proehl about her job taking care of those who are in the gravest danger from COVID.
“For some people it is, you know, it feels just like the flu,” Proehl says. “But there's that group of people that wish it was the flu. It is just horrible.”
It’s nonstop work in the ICU at Hennepin County Medical Center, with nurses caring for patients with COVID 19 and all of the complications that go a long with that.
“It is heartbreaking,” said Proehl, who has worked at the hospital for 12 years.
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When the pandemic hit, Proehl says it wasn’t too bad initially, but then the first surge happened and they had to open up an overflow area.
Now many months later, they have learned more about how to treat the virus, but it’s still difficult particularly when a patient is near death, and with no visitors. Unfortunately, they are forced to pass away with their loved ones watching on a tablet.
“The sad part is that’s when you start to understand who the person is that you’ve been treating, because loved ones share memories and say goodbye,” Proehl told Susie Jones. “It’s absolutely heartbreaking. Nobody wants to be in there for that.”
Proehl is still shocked that people don’t seem to understand the gravity of the situation. She wishes that everyone could get a glimpse of what they see every day, and perhaps they would then take it seriously. She says it is a serious situation in the ICU.
“It's a lot of work just to take care of one person,” Proehl says. “Just trying to keep up with all the labs, the medications, if they're on this continuous dialysis, you have to take care of that machine as well and follow labs and replace things. The people on the ECMO (respiratory machine) it's basically that one person is in the room the entire time, just because that machine has all their blood going in and outside of the machine. And if something would happen, it would be catastrophic.”
Proehl says she has seen a lot of people die this year, and it is always difficult for the nurses.
“I can't even count, unfortunately. And it's sad that we don't get to know them as a person before that. Not that it would change any level of care, but it just, they don't know you and you don't know them. So it's kind of sad just because there's no one here to tell you the stories.”