All life’s emotions condensed into a few months

isabel rico Nurse Mas Camarena Care Home

It’s been like taking all the emotions you might feel all your life and compressing them into a few months. That’s how intense it has been.

I think as an organization we have made radical changes. We were an open centre where families were part of our daily routine. They were an integral part of caring for the older people in our care, and even did training with us.

But now, since the centre has been sealed, we have had to learn to work in a different way. We used to work with groups, but now we work more with individuals, because people can’t mix with each other. So far, we have had no cases of Covid, neither staff nor residents.

When the pandemic arrived there were 71 people in the team: auxiliaries, maintenance, managers, nurses and doctors. There were 119 residents and all of them were very vulnerable, either because they are older and we also have

VALENCIA — SPAIN

highly dependent, younger people who live with mechanical ventilation. They are really dependent. So if the virus got in it would be fatal.

Communication has formed the base of our teamwork. There is nothing I have gone through that the team hasn’t been a part of. I am talking about the whole team: cleaners, kitchen staff, auxiliaries, etc. Our residents have been informed of all the decisions we have made that affect them directly, such as the zoning off. I remember a lady of over 100 years old who who is still quite independent. We told her and her comment was: Yes, it’s a really bad flu. Like the one 100 years ago.

In Sanitas Mayores we have an app that we use to keep in touch with our resident’s families. This is a very new project, about a year and a half or two years old. They can download it on their phones and use it to message any employee of the centre at any moment.

I have been here for fifteen years and haven’t had a break in working since 1999, so I have been a nurse for twenty-one years. Over the past few months, I have also been shielding my daughter and my son and my husband. I have been the only one going out.�