May 17, 2020
I am a psychology resident working in a hospital during COVID-19. Working during a pandemic has been quite an experience. I would like to share some of this experience with this wonderful blog!
What is it like walking into the hospital during COVID-19?
Things have changed quite a bit. If you listen to the news, you know that PPE was a major concern, and still is. In the beginning when “screening” into the hospital started, we were asked 3-5 questions about our symptoms and asked to sanitize our hands upon entry. The individuals asking the questions wore masks and sat at tables.
Now, the questions are much more detailed. About 8-10 questions. E.g. “Do you have a fever? Cough or shortness of breath? Runny nose? Vomiting or diarrhea? Exposure to a presumed or confirmed case of COVID? Travelled in the last 14 days? Have you been somewhere where there has been a COVID outbreak? Etc..”. The staff asking these questions sit behind a plastic barrier now and still wear masks. They also hand you a mask upon entry, hooray! This was not given initially because of the fear of running out of PPE. We are required to wear the mask at all times in common areas.
Early on, all outpatient services were cancelled. When things first started, I think many hospital staff were in limbo, waiting for direction and unsure what to do in the first week after many services were cancelled.
Redeployment during this time has been very important. The fear is COVID-19 outbreaks can result is a lot of staff being forced to stay home for 14 days or more. The hospital needs to maintain as many staff as possible. Psychologists, physiotherapists, speech language pathologists, anyone who is not seeing patients right now can be assigned these jobs. It is part of “go and help where you are needed”.
What is it like in the hospital?
Quiet! Lonely perhaps? There are fewer casual conversations in the hallway, you avoid common areas like the cafeteria, and with less people visiting the hospital, it is a bit of a ghost town sometimes.
What have you done in the hospital since COVID-19 started?
I spend a lot of time in my office these days. I am not a nurse or medical doctor, so I am not directly treating COVID-19 patients, or other inpatients. My work is part of a memory clinic. The work I am doing now has provided wonderful training on geriatric telemedicine/telepsychology. We are calling people who have had their appointments canceled/delayed and doing what we can to keep the long waitlists moving. This work has given me direction and a sense of purpose and I am grateful that, although different, my training continues.
How does it feel working when everyone is at home?
If I am being honest, in the beginning, this sucked! I felt like since I am not saving lives or directly involved in patient care anymore, that my job wasn’t essential. I was told to come to the hospital anyways. My thoughts on this have changed drastically because I have work that feels important and continues to service people in community despite not seeing them in-person.
On a lighter note, there are so many funny memes and posts online these days – people posting about their quarantine experience. My world hasn’t changed in this same way, so it is sometimes hard to relate to relate to memes. This sounds silly, I know. Maybe even brings up some jealousy that I can’t be at home in pjs, baking bread, saving money, doing skin care, and growing out my hair. Sometimes these things sound trivial with everything going on in the world. However, people are doing their part for society. While some people feel eager to return to work right now, front-line workers need/deserve a vacation.
What do you do for self-care?
Self-care is more important than ever! I have learned that I can’t read sad stories on the news or get sucked into daily news updates. I need to disconnect at the end of the workday. Doing the “fun” quarantine activities in my off-hours allows me to feel normal, like I am doing what everyone else is doing. I enjoy virtual calls with family and friends, going for walks and cooking.
Through conversations with friends/family, it is clear that everyone is experiencing some sort of disappointment/loss or hard time right now. These things vary quite a bit and it is too easy to compare. It is more important than ever that, even if one part of our life is particularly hard right now, we recognize that there are many MANY other things to be grateful for. Our health. Health of others. Our support system. Our community. Food. Safety. The future. I am personally so proud of Canadians and the way people have come together. I am in awe of the selflessness/heroic acts during these difficult times. We need to share more of these stories.
- Anonymous Contributor #5
The author of this post has chosen to remain anonymous. I have assigned a number to contributors who opt to remain anonymous. This is so readers have a sense of the number of different contributors that are involved in this continuously growing community.