The wave

I just attended a meeting where our COVID surge curve model was presented. I have been preparing for the overwhelming wave of COVID cases we all will face in the few weeks, and the graph I saw still took my breath away. But I am bolstered knowing this is not forever. Things will change. And when I think too much about the horrible things that might happen to my loved ones, patients and coworkers, I need to match those images in my head with the just as likely best case scenarios of everyone faring very well.

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HI Jen:

Thanks for adding your uplifting thoughts and for your service. How are you protecting yourself and your loved ones now?

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I think there are 2 types of protections we all need to have: those for physical and psychological health. As far as physical protections, I'm a nurse manager, I ran to Home Depot and bought close to $400 of safety goggles for every member of my staff when news of the outbreak was growing in early March. If I could've found PAPRs or N95s, I would've bought them too. Making people feel safe at work is about actions and words together. It can't just be one or the other. At home, my family and I have made the rather drastic decision that I won't be staying at home beginning some time next week- my wife has significant heart problems and my mom, whom we live with, is 79. We arrived at this decision as a family and used a values-driven approach to get there. It mattered to all of us to take whatever steps and precautions we can to keep my wife healthy. In terms of psychological well-being, My son and I have done a bedtime check-in with each other since he was 3.We recount our highs and lows of the day and something we are grateful for every night. I've started doing the same via text with friends who are overwhelmed. We are doing a similar intervention at work during our start of shift huddles- asking one person to share why they are excited to be at work and also how they decompressed while not at work .We're collecting responses to create a word cloud. No matter how bad things may get, we always have the ability to pause, reflect and be grateful. I am so glad to have had MEPRA training that taught me all of this.

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Jen:

Your response brought a tear to my eye. I am so sorry you can't be with your family. I would love it if you could share some of the responses you get in your start of shift huddles. I suspect that word cloud will be helpful, perhaps even comforting, to lots of other nurses.

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