Becker's Hospital Review

44 CMO / CARE DELIVERY From the COVID-19 front lines: What healthcare workers want their leaders to know By Kelly Gooch D uring the pandemic, healthcare workers have been on the front lines providing care to patients with and without COVID-19. ey have shown up ready to work, while navigating changing state and federal guidelines, as well as concerns about getting sick or infecting their loved ones. Amid these challenges, workers at many hospitals and health systems have found support in leadership and in colleagues who are familiar with their experiences. Still, with cases surging across the U.S., they know their fight against the virus will only continue. Here, workers discuss what they want hospital leaders to know about their COVID-19 experiences, initiatives they want to see implement- ed, and initiatives that have worked well. Editor's note: Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity. Question: If you had 15 minutes with a hospital leader, what would you want him or her to know about your ex- periences amid the pandemic? Jennifer Clutter, RN, nurse manager at Mercy Health–St. Eliza- beth Youngstown (Ohio) Hospital Emergency Department: is virus has changed us so much as a society and as professional nurs- es. Nothing is simple anymore. ere is much anxiety on both sides. Patients are scared, and nurses are scared they may get sick or make their loved ones sick. In fact, some staff have not seen their elderly parents since March, and it is heartbreaking to hear them talk about these situations. It is mentally taxing to hear the concern of families when they can't see their loved ones. I know there will be mental and physical fallout from this pandemic with families and the front-line workers. Additionally, with the lockdowns, there has been an increase in psy- chiatric population, depression, anxiety and substance abuse — all of these affect the emergecy department. People at first stayed away from the ED for fear of catching the vi- rus. is has had its effects on the population that we serve. In time, we have realized that people are coming back to the hospital sicker than ever. At the beginning of this pandemic, we are all heroes in the eyes of the public. Now we are struggling, tired and need community support more than ever before. Follow the guidelines … please, for both your sake and our sake. We are still here fighting this virus, and sometimes it seems as though the community has moved on. Jeffrey Kuo, MD, senior staff emergency physician at Ochsner Health (New Orleans): I truly appreciate you leading with empathy and under- standing that we, as health workers, are also human. No different than our patients, we too are fearful that we and our loved ones may fall ill, apprehensive of the unknown, sad that we are separated from many of our friends and families, and have the desire to go back to our 'normal' lives. Yet we come to work every day exhibiting compassion toward our patients in an altruistic manner. ank you for recognizing this and supporting us. Missy McVey, director of cardiopulmonary services at Atrium Health (Charlotte, N.C.): We know we are not alone, and we would not have made it without our colleagues. A large part of what keeps us going is one another. None of us could do this alone. Together, we all form the heartbeat of what makes us Atrium Health. When one team celebrates, we all do. When one team hurts, we all do. It is our interconnectedness and our relationships with one another that helps to keep us steady and strong. Sarah Palmer, BSN, RN, medical intensive care unit, Atrium Health (Charlotte, N.C.): ese are some of the sickest patients we have ever New York hospital fires employee for refusing flu shot By Erica Carbajal G lens Falls (N.Y.) Hospital fired longtime employee Lisa Amorosi Dec. 1 for refusing to get a flu shot af- ter citing bad reactions from past flu vaccines, The Post Star reported. Ms. Amorosi, who worked at the check-in desk at Glens Falls Cancer Center, said she hasn't gotten a flu vaccine for the past five years, instead wearing a mask during the six months of flu season. In the past, she reported getting a flu shot yearly but stopped when she felt sick for months on end after receiving it. "My skin literally hurt. My clothes hurt. It lasted eight months out of the year," she told The Post Star. "I thought it was a fluke. Normally, I'm healthy all year long. I got the flu shot the second year, the same thing happened — I felt like crap for about eight months." After that she decided not to get a flu vaccine anymore. In early 2020, the hospital changed its protocol to require all non-allergic employees to get vaccinated by Dec. 1, or be terminated. "As healthcare workers providing care to some of the most vulnerable in our population, we determined that the re- sponsible stance to take within our organization is to make flu vaccination mandatory," Ray Agnew, hospital spokes- person, said in a statement shared with The Post Star. "This is the norm, not the exception, among almost all Capital Region hospitals." Those who didn't want the vaccine were offered a free evaluation from an independent allergist. Employees aller- gic to essential vaccine components were exempt. An allergist told Ms. Amorosi there was no way to confirm her reactions were linked to the vaccine, dismissing an ex- emption qualification. She declined the eggless vaccine, an alternative for people who might be allergic to certain components in the regular vaccine, and was fired Dec. 1. n

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