Knowing that giving up is not an option, every day many health care workers show up to do their part as the fight continues both against the spread of COVID-19 and to treat those who are infected.
Not all are directly involved with the efforts on the frontline. Some are responsible for caring for patients with underlying health issues that make them particularly vulnerable if they contract the virus. They, too, are in some cases literal lifesavers.
Among them is Nurse Tanisha Peters, who takes care of dialysis patients. On an average day, Nurse Peters set up dialysis for two patients but on other days she sees as much as ten patients at a time. Most of her patients, she explained, are those who are in the ward awaiting dialysis.
Peters said that she has noticed that there are less persons in the ward scheduled for dialysis and this may be due to the pandemic as some persons opt to stay at home and take care of themselves there. It is possible, she said, that the patients have chosen to do their dialysis privately or at home.
Peters explained that there are two types of dialysis that are done—hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. In hemodialysis, an artificial kidney machine is used to remove waste from the body, while in peritoneal dialysis a soft plastic tube (catheter) is placed in one’s abdomen by surgery to allow a sterile cleansing fluid to filter out waste. A patient can be taught to do the peritoneal dialysis at home.
“I have a colleague who would drop me to work once she’s on the same time I’m on. My job does require the twelve hour shift but if I do work late, let’s say I get off at seven in the night, then I take the transportation provided by the hospital”, Peters said.
Not having to take public transportation often, the nurse said, has meant that she has never had to deal with being shunned by anyone but she has heard from colleagues who related to her that they have suffered such treatment from persons who are fearful that they could have contracted the virus from a patient. What Peters has experienced personally is being insulted and having obscene language thrown at her by a conductor and bus driver one morning on her way to work after she refused to sit in an almost full bus knowing that guidelines were put in place regarding the amount of passengers public transportation can take. She resorted to taking a taxi that morning.
Peters thinks despite the amount of persons who have tested positive, the country has still managed to keep its number down compared to other countries although persons are still stubborn and are congregating in the markets, bus parks and at other public areas. As a result, she is pleading with persons to adhere to social distancing so we can return to our jobs and schooling soon enough.
Midwife Loyette Griffith is back and forth between Vive-La-Force Health Post and Goed Intent Health Centre. Though a midwife, she is caught up on a daily basis from Monday to Friday carrying out similar tasks as the nurses here, tending to patients as they come and go.
“When persons come to the health post, the first thing we do is test their temperature, and check for any symptoms of the virus before we do anything else. I notice that our pregnant mothers and other patients are wearing their facemasks and they have hand sanitizers, so far we haven’t had anyone that we were suspicious of that we would have had to send for testing for the COVID virus,” Griffith said.
Griffith, who lives in Vive-La-Force, said that prior to getting into the health sector she was stuck at home until a visit from a senior health visitor (SHV), who encouraged her to become a community health worker (CHW). The SHV would visit persons in the community, checking on their health as there was no health post at the time. Nurse SVH, who lived miles away at another village, became concerned that with no regular transportation into the village, it was difficult for someone who was ill to get out to a hospital or health facility and said a health worker was needed in the community. At 21, Loyette became a health worker. In 2006, she graduated as a midwife.
Dental Nurse Donette Griffith is stationed at Diamond Hospital. Currently the dental department provides medication for patients who come with swelling, dental abscesses or pain. No filling, or cleaning is being done and only emergency extractions are allowed. The woman said that these procedures can put persons at risk for transmission of the virus and therefore they have been put on a standstill until it has been deemed safe again to provide such services.
Donette now exercises tremendous caution between work and home. “Before I enter a bus, I sanitize my hand before I pull the bus door. I would already have the exact change for the drop so I don’t have to collect change from the conductors. To get change I would make change at a gas station then come home with it, put it on some bleach water then hang it on the line then once it dries I parcel it out depending on how I’ll use it at home”, the nurse said.
Once she gets home, she gets out of her clothes on the outside of her house, leaving her footwear outside. She washes her hands then heads to the bathroom, where she takes a shower and then disinfects her bag. Donette said that as a mother of four, she tries really hard to stay safe for the sake of her family. She noted that while she may not be the one in the triage area with the other nurses screening patients as they come to the hospital, nurses meet with other nurses and she cannot be sure that her colleagues have taken the necessary precautions to stay safe. As a result she said she has a duty to do all she can.
Donette shared that initially she had intended to become a teacher or a nurse but her career path changed after her mother, who worked at the Ministry of Health at the time, told her of a dental nursing programme that was available and the rest is history.
Nurse Angelina Speede works in the cardiology department at the Georgetown Public Hospital. “I don’t deal firsthand with patients that could be infected with the virus. These persons would have been screened first. When patients come, if they say that they’re coughing, we would ask whether they’re experiencing any other COVID symptoms. You would find persons complaining of shortness of breath, cold sweat, pains in the chest and that is common for persons dealing with heart issues but because of the current situation, they might be worried that it is COVID”, Speede said. She too noted that there has been a reduction in the number of persons that are seen daily.
Nurse Speede said that becoming a nurse has always been a dream. She grew up taking care of her little sister and when she was sick and had a temperature, she was always nearby with a wet rag to put on her sister’s forehead. Becoming a nurse, she said, was one of the best decisions she has ever made.
Outside of her job, the nurse also does volunteer work with the Give Hope Foundation and would do cervical screening whenever there are outreaches. Prior to working in the cardiology department, Nurse Speede worked in the gynecology department.
In regards to whether she is being treated differently by the public, the nurse said that she can only recall once when she was about to take a taxi. Just as she was about to reach the car, Speede said that the driver put his front passenger seat down and she got into the backseat instead. She is still not sure whether the driver did that because he didn’t want her to sit in front with him for fear of contracting the virus and every time she remembers this day, she still wonders why he did what he did.
