Aide suits up to support nurses, COVID-19 patients
Nurse's aide Beth Nowakowski has been tending to COVID-19 patients at Butler Memorial Hospital since the pandemic began, and she's confident in the safety procedures the hospital has implemented.
She's been at the hospital for a year and a half after a long career at Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.
“Nurses do medicines and wound dressing,” Nowakowski said. “We really help out the nurses, they count on us to have everything done so they don't have to worry about it, like dressing the patients, bathing the patients, their daily care.”
Nowakowski has seen patients on the 7th floor of the hospital's tower shift from all coronavirus patients to its present complement of half coronavirus cases and half other patients.
Suiting up
Referring to the virus, she said, “When it first started, everybody was scared. But we were taught to use our mask and the gear. We put on the gown and the gloves.”
She said nurses and nurse's aides had an in-service session to reinforce safety procedure.
“We were all trained in the proper procedures, and we all refreshed during an in-service,” she said. “It basically is just using your PPE and be extra cautious. We disinfect constantly up there.”
And those procedures are meticulous and time-consuming.
The staff are gowned, double-gloved and wear head masks connected to a powered, air-purifying respirator (PAPR) used to safeguard workers against contaminated air.
When finished with the patient, staffers peel off their gowns inside out, take off their first pair of gloves.Once outside, the headgear and PAPR are taken off and disinfected.A new gown and gloves are worn and the PAPR and headgear reattached.“It's time consuming in between each person. It's not a fast process: put the mask on, hook it up,” she said.On a positive note — Nowakowski doesn't have to change as often. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospital admissions have dropped as elective surgeries have dropped.“I see three to seven patients a day, normally we would have 26 patients on a floor,” she said.On the downside — all her patients either have the virus or are seriously ill.Some of the COVID-19 patients under her care have been discharged from the hospital. Some have died.“It hits everybody different. Some people, it hits worse than others,” she said.The symptoms vary too.“For the most part they are alert. If they weren't, they'd be in the ICU,” Nowakowski said. “We just try to make them comfortable.”Asked if she worried about becoming infected herself, Nowakowski said, “I'm not really scared about it. I feel safe with how everything is being handled.“I work with a lot of really good nurses and aides. Everybody works together and everybody helps each other,” she said.
