A N URSE MAKES HOME VISITS DURI NG TH E PAN DEMIC. WHAT DOES SH E SEE? BODY, MI N D, EMOTION, SPI RIT, DREAM.
BY SA L L I E T I S DA L E
SHE IS OVER NINETY , hard of hearing, easily confused. And here we come, hidden behind masks, shields, and gloves. She smiles sweetly, whispering, “You are all so kind to me.” She strokes my arm, reaches up to the doctor for a hug. He deflects her, gently. “You are so kind,” she says again. “So kind.”
big day center that no one can use now. I’m in charge of supplies, and I spend time every shift counting gowns, goggles, and disinfectant wipes.
Many of our appointments are virtual now. The vaunted promise of telehealth doesn’t account for cognitive decline, poor My life hasn’t changed all that much in the last few months. I vision, the tremors of Parkinson’s disease, or a caregiver who work as a writer and part-time as an RN in palliative care. I stay doesn’t speak English. It doesn’t account for a thousand other home and write, and it’s my pleasure, not a hardship. I go to realities, but we try. We still must see several people a day, what work and listen to lungs and bowels and worries. I’ve been a we call “eyes-on” visits. Eyes on, hands on, because some things nurse for more than thirty years, and I’ve been in nursing must be done this way. The visits are slow and cumbersome homes, a college infirmary, a bare-bones clinic in Uganda. I’ve and—why don’t more people mention this?—really irritating. worked with developmentally disabled adults and stem-cell The doctor hates the face shield. We all hate the face shields. transplant patients on an oncology unit. Now I work with “Might as well be in a scuba suit,” he complains. “I can’t see fragile, chronically ill people. The old woman lives with her anything, and how can they see me?” I give him a red child’s family still, and we will do what we can to keep her comfortable cowboy hat to wear on top and remind him to pull up his mask. and in her home for the rest of her life. When I taught first-year nursing students, I would ask them I hear more worries now. The stakes for medically compli- to give me a short definition of what a nurse does. Most of their cated patients are always high; they are higher now. We are answers were lists of tasks: start IVs, give medications. What doing everything possible to avoid sending our clients to the I wanted to hear, what I eventually would say, is that a nurse hospital. We sit six feet apart for the morning meeting, in the sees the whole person. Every member of the team does,
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PORTLAND