Always a nurse, with or without a pandemic

mª francisca castillo Nurse IntegraMédica Outpatients Clinics

I am 32 years old and have been a nurse for eight years. Our centre is the biggest of all of them and I don’t think we were prepared for this pandemic. What we had to do, most of all, was to make sure the patients got quality, safe care. In February, we started talking about how we could prepare for this. In the third or fourth week the first Covid cases started coming in. In March it became an avalanche and one suspected case became fifteen to twenty a day. March was a really bad month. I was on the verge of tears on many occasions. That month was a mixture of people coming in for pcr tests and appointments for patients with chronic illnesses – high blood pressure, diabetics, etc. In March and April, we started to receive protocols from the Ministry of Health with guidelines on how to deal with the pandemic within the different procedures and areas of the medical centre. In April we started to get it all organised. Over time, we were able to fine-tune it.

One of the most difficult things was notifying the seremi (Ministry of Health) correctly and making sure we didn’t contribute to under-reporting of national numbers. I think between March and April people started to realise how serious the pandemic was and would only the visit the centre if it was really necessary. In the first two weeks of June there were lots of cases and lots of tests. Everything fell apart. There were lots each day and most of them were positive. It was really important to stop the spread, because so many people were dying every day. In May it was 50 a day and in the first two weeks of June between 100 and 200. It started to calm down in July and patients came less to the medical centre and the number of people testing with pcr tests went down. Generally, nobody can say for sure if people can get coronavirus again or whether they are immune, but now we have the igg and igm tests which can show how much immunity a patient has built up. I haven’t had a cold in ten years and I have never had bronchitis in my life. I am a vegetarian and am really careful about what I eat. I was sure I wouldn’t get ill, but Generally, nobody can my family was worried. My mother, instead of say for sure if people can get coronavirus again or encouraging me, would get me worried, asking all the time: What if you get Covid? What will you do? What if you are infected? whether they are immune, Nurses are always educating, including about but now we have the IgG how to wash your hands properly. Until coronavirus, some people still didn’t and IgM tests which can know how to sneeze properly. When I talk to show how much immunity people, I tell them: Did you know that in order to a patient has built up. pick up a virus you have to inhale droplets from someone who left them on a surface? They would say: How disgusting! And I would say, how do you think we pick things up? Strictly speaking, I think face shields are better than masks, because people often don’t use masks properly. Some people wear them under their noses or to the side and they end up being more of a virus transmitter than a protector. The same is true of gloves: they should only be used for medical uses, because they collect micro-organisms and become transmitters.

SANTIAGO — CHILE

When we came out of lockdown last week I started cycling. I still need to get back to my hobbies – I do pilates and yoga, and I haven’t been able to do them for months. On the emotional side of things, the hardest thing has been the distance from my family, my home and my husband. As well as my two little dogs. If anyone asks me if the pandemic has made me want to stop nursing, I tell them no way, I would do it a thousand and one times, pandemic or not. �