“They are asked to do almost twice as much as before, but there are not twice as many staff,” says care coordinator Kathleen Olekshy.
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During this pandemic, healthcare workers have been on the front lines, hailed as heroes but also targeted by protesters against the vaccine mandate. Postmedia went behind the scenes and spoke with a variety of Fraser Health Authority staff for this five-part series to see how they cope. Here is the third part.
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No nurse should feel that they are solely responsible for what has caused COVID-19, said Kathleen Olekshy.
They should not feel the weight of guilt on their shoulders.
But they do, and it grieves Olekshy, the patient care coordinator at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster.
“A nurse came to me the other day with tears in her eyes,” he said, and Olekshy she cried herself, the pain on her face evident.
“He came up with tears in his eyes,” he continued. “And he said, ‘I no longer want to feel the burden of responsibility for someone else’s life.’
History says a lot about where the nurses are, Olekshy said.
“That nurse cares so much it broke my heart.”
As a care coordinator, Olekshy’s job is to make sure patients get the right doctors to treat them, a bed in the right room, and at the right time.
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She is in contact with other hospitals in a kind of commercial frenzy to get patients to facilities where beds are available, and her job is to keep families informed.
Not least, as he assigns overworked staff to the places where they are best suited in the overwhelmed critical care units, he also has the attention of his colleagues in mind.
“They’re being asked to do almost twice as much as before, but there’s not twice as many staff, twice as much equipment, or twice as much space,” Olekshy said.
As he spoke for an hour, he received repeated text messages from Fraser Health looking for people working overtime, or as they are called, impending shifts. The requests were for RNs to work that day in emergency room, thoracic and vascular medicine, and intensive care.
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It’s a different world Olekshy graduated from after completing her registered nursing degree at Douglas College 29 years ago and jobs were scarce.
She worked in various clinical wards, including orthopedics and neurology, and her goal was always to be an intensive care nurse.
“I wanted it so bad,” Olekshy said. “I admired those nurses a lot and maybe even more now than ever. I also want to make a difference in the lives of those who were so sick. “
In a hospital, intensive care is a general term that includes the intensive care unit (ICU), as well as cardiac surgery, high acuity units and advanced life support.
Olekshy’s mother was a nurse (she retired in the mid-1970s just before COVID-19 hit) and Olekshy could see the care and compassion with which his mother fulfilled her calling.
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His mother’s passion became his own and he followed the same path.
“She was my biggest influence, for sure.”
Olekshy’s job is like keeping multiple balls in the air, making sure that COVID, trauma, internal cardiac arrest and ICU patients are cared for in real time.
But in addition to juggling beds, you can compare the organized chaos within intensive care units to the team’s synchronized events.
“If you could witness that, you would know exactly what I mean,” he said. “I don’t want anyone to have a loved one in an intensive care setting, but for those who have no experience with medical care for themselves or their loved ones, it is very difficult to describe.”
The stress faced by all healthcare workers and the spectrum of burnout are well documented, and elevated indicators of stress are early to persist long after the pandemic, according to various studies.
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“It’s hard to hold on emotionally,” Olekshy said of the past 19 months. “We are not afraid of hard work, but this has far exceeded what seems like hard work.”
And since visiting restrictions were put in place, nurses have had to find new ways to communicate with families, organizing virtual meetings and video conferences.
It’s just not the same, he said. Virtual connections are not a substitute for in-person contact, and families struggle, disbelief, when they receive a phone call telling them that their loved one has suddenly gone downhill.
“(A patient) leaves the house, maybe their families take them to the emergency department and then because of visiting restrictions, that’s when they essentially say goodbye,” Olekshy said.
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It is difficult for families, then, to appreciate the trajectory of an individual’s potential decline. So for them to have another phone call to say their loved one is on a mechanical ventilator or life support, Olekshy said he can’t imagine what it must be like to get that call.
“‘I just saw it! He was a little short of breath! he said, projecting.
“And then of course getting a call that a patient is dying is a huge disconnect.”
Coming tomorrow: Part 4, Long-term COVID Care
Part 1: respiratory therapists see ICUs filling up with unvaccinated patients
Part 2: health officials are diversifying due to the pandemic
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