The Nurse’s Story

Pittsburg, PA- The Medical Staff around the world are working hard to battle the Covid-19 Pandemic but face many obstacles to keep the pandemic under control and fight back the virus that startled the world.

People around the world for the last year have watched the countless amount of news media and documentaries capturing the final messages, and moments of Covid Patients and the effects on their families. The Media have made many efforts to show the in-depth details of those affected by the pandemic, however, few details from the medical team have made it to the surface …until now.

Christian Snowberger, who works as an LPN at Mon Valley Hospital South of Pittsburgh. He has worked there for six weeks and before that, he was an agency nurse who went to inpatient facilities and convents taking care of those with medical needs and helping them during the pandemic.

Snowberger works on a telemetry floor for all cardiac patients. Assessing patients, giving them medications and treatment while helping them to get better and go home. Snowberger treats all patients because the number of patients got so bad that they had to redesignate the floors to be covid and non-covid areas. Some Covid Patients could not sleep in designated rooms because of the area being so hard hit during the pandemic and witnessed patients in non-designated beds because they were full. Every patient gets tested in the ER. The Staff just make sure to hand hygiene and keep PPE separated.

The Pandemic is causing emotional turmoil to many health care workers across the country and Snowberger gave Great detail about the situation.

“It is causing an increasing amount of stress and burnout rate. A year ago, today I lost my job for calling off, sticking up for my staff and patients but was written up 4 times. It had to take a pandemic to realize how our healthcare system is broken and corrupt.”

Snowberger also explained that management has mistreated their healthcare workers and the employees are forced to work in unsettling conditions.

“Management doesn’t care for us floor nurses. As long as the documentation is in so that they can get reimbursed. Staff patient ratios have always such a hot topic but during all of this, many healthcare workers were lied to such as getting hazard pay or extra time off. So many lies from the CEOs and managers”

Snowberger gave great details on what it takes for him to work with the patients and what it takes to go through each shift. Hospitals have different regulations for their patients, but it constantly changes each week.

“Depends on the setting…in non-hospital settings, if they suspected to have Covid they were sent out to the hospital, treated and came back…by the end of 2020, positive patients were kept in private isolation rooms and staff would wear the appropriate PPE in the hospital setting there is designated floors with negative pressure rooms and PPE stations but as the year went on, they changed it to 9 to 10 days to then saying if your Covid positive with no symptoms you can still work. I honestly don’t think the CDC was saying all this but hospitals and facilities using CDC for their advantage.”, Says Christian Snowberger.

Christian Snowberger works tirelessly throughout the week and keeps his patients smiling and feeling better. Snowberger does feel hopeful that the near future will get better and have a new beginning.

“ finally the virus will be over and realize that the most time spent should be with family and friends. That everyone is essential and that they make a difference. It should not have taken a pandemic to realize that everyone is a hero- police, fire, ems, doctors, nurses, housekeeping, grocery workers and truckers.”

With my new job my responsibilities are checking in patients, asking for info so I can either pull up their info or give them paperwork so I can make their chart, create lab requisitions for lab work, schedule follow up appointments, and soon will be certified to do outreach testing in the community.

Christian Snowberger is one of the millions of everyday hero’s but his story runs in the main hospitals. Other medical professionals face many other challenges too outside the hospitals.

Stephen Vazques, who works as a Case Manager at HIV Prevention at IMG Clinic in Orlando FL.

Vazquez has worked in the clinic very shortly but has gained so many experiences and has dreamed of helping people throughout his entire life. Vazques worked in many places across the Orlando area but he does not work with Covid Patents but needs to follow protocols made to protect him and others from covid.

“I focus on each patient that walks in, if a few walks in my coworkers come and help but if they are busy with a patient, we just ask for their patience and have a seat while we work with the current patient and their paperwork. For this job, the minimum was 7 and the most were 17. Sometimes I try to balance two patients at once. We only see non covid patients.”, Says Vazquez.

Vazquez works with patients of all ages and keeps up with their information that is on display on the monitors. He is part of a team that shares valuable information with people and spreads the word to help them in their time of need. As explained …

“Since we are a private clinic, we have our outreach team go out and do free non-covid testing, which is HIV testing. We give them info about our company and whether they are positive or negative we have resources for them at no cost. They come to our clinic with their result cards and if they are interested in our services, we have them fill out paperwork so we can create a patient chart and make requisitions for lab work.,” Vazquez explained as he described the team’s efforts.

Vazquez works with non-covid patients but just like many people around the country, he must follow protocols that change regularly from CDC. Stephen Vazquez must follow the Covid-19 procedures to keep people safe because the charts do not say if someone is positive or not, so he takes a risk every day while going to work. The company has a policy in place that requires both patients and staff to get tested if there is a possibility of someone getting exposed.

“If the patient is covid positive they have to follow guidelines and quarantine for 10 days (about 1 and a half weeks). Then once they are cleared, they can come in. Then, we are sent home immediately. We quarantine get tested after quarantine then we can return to work. We might just use sick times but as a new hire, I haven’t accumulated that yet. My last job I would have to use sick leave. “, said Vazquez.

Stephen Vasquez works with many people throughout the city and works in multiple locations. He helps manages cases and stays busy seeing patients throughout the day. Vazquez’s story is one of the millions of health care workers who work with non-covid patients but follow CDC Guidelines to make sure his job is the most efficient.

While some health care workers in various positions and areas of study are fighting Covid-19 in hospitals and clinics such as Christian Snowberger and Stephen Vasquez, other healthcare workers must fight and take care of the most severely sick.

Joshua Robeson, who works as a CNA at Aya Healthcare Traveler in Woodbury, Minnesota. His responsibilities are taking vital signs repositioning patients. Assistance with activities of daily living such as using the bathroom. Robeson has been working since August and he wears gowns, gloves, N95 mask, and face shields. Robeson works directly with Covis-19 Patients in their worst conditions. Many of his responsibilities are challenging and every day he treats different patients who may or may not be sick and most of the time they do not make it.

“The most challenging obstacle I faced in treating COVID-19 patients is honestly not knowing if they were positive or not they didn’t put up precautions until they were positive so a lot of times you could be going into a room and they were Covid suspected but nothing was telling you that they are positive or not. That’s what is so scary is there are not any positive stories most ended in death.”, says Robeson.

Robeson describes the chilling details of patients with Covid-19. Many patients range in all ages but many of the stories are not happily ever after. The toll on the patients is humongous and devasting. Many patients he has taken care of or known personally have perished through the night and most of the time he would not know who died till the next day. The griming details he gave out about the scariest symptom are enough to make anyone cautious about the virus.

“Most people would get what we called Covid brain where they would have hallucinations memory loss it would be similar to that of a dementia patient, they would be trying to get out of bed it was crazy because once they hit that stage they pretty much had to be intubated and if you got on the vent, you most like didn’t make it out,” explained Robeson.

Many of the nurses experience sexist comments about the responsibilities in terms of taking care of Covid-19 Patients. Robeson had problems with nurses giving him certain patients and responsibilities just because he is a male. Robeson stated that people will make him carry and clean heavier patients, bathe certain people, and overall make statements and comments he didn’t like until he went to the highest managers for help.

“I told HR I said it’s not that I wouldn’t mind doing it but I gave them a scenario if I said hey Mary go get me a cup of coffee because you’re a woman I said that doesn’t feel very good does it so for you to tell me are we gave you the heavier hall because you’re a man we need you to lift this person because you’re a man or you’re a big strong guy I told HR the next time someone calls me a big strong guy that’s a woman I’m going to call them a weak frail woman.” Say, Robeson.

Robeson stated that people have a different reaction to nurses. People do not want to be around Covid-19 workers because they feel that they will contract the virus. Patients do not get to see their families and he has to face discrimination and dirty looks because of his position. The job takes a toll on the public view of medical professionals.

“patients can’t have visitors even if those visitors work in healthcare. I know a nurse that was not allowed in her mother’s room and had to tell her mother goodbye on a zoom call. I remember when Covid first started and I was in my scrubs, I went to Walmart, and I picked up those babies’ toy that had fallen on the ground and went to give them to her and the mom slapped it out of my hand. It used to be that people who wore scrubs could take pride in it know it’s like we’re part of the problem.”, he explains.

Robeson has a long vision of a better future for the patients. People. And the medical staff. He hopes soon the vaccinations take place and people become better individuals and end the pandemic. He hopes that soon people can have trusted their health care again.

As stated,” So, to be honest in the near future I’m hoping that we get back to some normalcy I think a lot of us in healthcare wish that people would just wear their masks and the government would listen to healthcare providers regarding this, to be honest, I think that each state should have to refer to their board of nursing or board of healing arts before opening that state back up.” Robeson explained.

Christian Snowberger, Stephen Vazquez, and James Robeson are all similar because they work as health professionals but all three have vastly different work fields. They see the best and worst of the pandemic and must work with CDC Guidelines. They work with Covid and Non-covid patients. They work very hard and endlessly to help people and save as many lives as they can. These three-community heroes can’t save everybody, but they saved many. The three medical professionals are just a couple of stories out of millions.