Nov 23, 2020
Heroes on the front lines
In their own words, Massachusetts clinicians share what it is like to care for coronavirus patients — and, finally, to get vaccinated
This year, health care workers have been confronting an emergency like no other, the battle against the coronavirus.
They are struggling to treat a disease with no known treatment, one to which no human has natural immunity.
At Coverage, we are grateful for Massachusetts doctors, nurses, NPs, PAs and other hospital workers.
And for the past year, we have been giving them a chance to speak to you, our readers, in their own words. We asked that they share their simplest, most urgent lessons and messages as they face this new virus, a virus vulnerable only to our common human bravery, ingenuity and compassion.
Read their full messages:
I was definitely planning to get the vaccine from the beginning, but I had questions because I had a 5-month-old who I was nursing. It turned out that didn’t matter — my doctors said the shot was safe.
I feel like I have a strong duty to my patients and community to get this vaccine and show that it's safe.
Ultimately, we need to be more cooperative and more creative than ever. I think we’re in for a marathon on this one.
We could be scared and stay home, but we want to come in and want to do your jobs and keep everyone safe.
How can we be creative? How can we respond to needs we don’t even know we have yet?
As the chief, my biggest concern was to provide 24-hour coverage for COVID patients with a limited workforce and scare resources.
When I volunteered to take care of patients who may have COVID-19, I view its as an honor to leverage my medical training in order to help people in vulnerable time in their lives
There is definitely a sense of pride in the Environmental Service Department knowing that the work we do is critical in preventing the spread of this infection.
We are here to support our patients in their greater time of need, when they may feel isolated - but they are not alone
I’m really grateful for people doing their part staying home during the shelter-in-place order. This is everyone doing their part to keep our community safe.
Our patients at Boston Hope, who are all COVID-positive, are so grateful they have a place to rest and be taken care of because they don’t have home of their own to isolate.
I don’t know what it’s going to be like in the future, but for now we’re just going to have to hunker down and stay at home.
Just know our hearts are full of hope. Even if you can’t see our faces behind the masks and goggles, know we’re smiling at you.
Normally nurse just have one horribly sick patient at a time, but not anymore. For us, the stress level is though the roof.
Most of us have entered this career knowing at times we’d have to take risks. I think that’s the core of why we do this. But more than that is a sense of duty to community and colleagues.
The best way to thank health care workers is just by staying hone and taking it seriously.
I have been inspired by the selflessness and bravery that our profession has shown by throwing itself into the fire in order to save the lives of others.
Every member of the team comes together to take care of each patient to keep them safe, keep them alive and get them back home.
We’re ready to take care of patients, and we’re hoping everyone in the community is doing their part to flatten the curve.
It’s just incredibly tragic, but we’ve been more collaborative in medicine than we’ve ever been. We all have one mission.
The pandemic is clearly pushing the medical system to its limits. It is the smart, hard-working people with whom I work that will get out community through this crisis.
This is a wake-up call for so many front-line healthcare providers who have, until now, sat on the sidelines.
I have a husband at hone that has cancer, and I just don’t want to get him sick.
An ICU only works with all these people working together to take care of a critically ill patient.
Another thing that’s been striking is the disparity associated with COVID-19, it has affected so many black and brown communities in Boston.
Firefighters face fires, police officers face crime, we face disease and illness.
What’s inspiring is how creative our nurse are when it comes to finding solutions for new problems.
No one wants to be in quarantine anymore, but we’re seeing it come back, we're still seeing healthy people that are affected by it.
The grieving process is so complicated, full of missed opportunities. The thing is, the staff also suffer.