My Day With Cosmo: What It's Like Being A Nurse During A Pandemic
On episode two of our "My Day With Cosmo" series, we got to know Angel, a Registered Nurse and frontliner during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Here she talks about what work has been like.
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Transcript
00:00If you have a toxic duty, then you can't go on break.
00:05You need to finish all your tasks within your shift.
00:10So usually, we only get to eat our drink after our duty.
00:14My name is Angel, I'm a nurse,
00:16and this is My Day With Cosmo.
00:22I've been a Registered Nurse since 2010
00:25and I'm currently working as a staff nurse
00:30Actually I'm assigned to Patient Care Services
00:33as a float pool nurse.
00:36If you're a float pool nurse,
00:38you don't have a specific unit.
00:41We have a rotation.
00:42It's either you will be immersed in a specific unit,
00:47or as a roving nurse, which means
00:51For example, for today's shift,
00:53you'll be assigned to the Pediatric Unit.
00:57And then tomorrow,
00:58you'll be assigned to the Neurocritical Care Unit.
01:00I spent two years in the Pediatric Unit.
01:03It was okay.
01:05I really got the hang of things.
01:07But I really wanted to be a Float Pool nurse,
01:10because they are very flexible
01:12and being one widens your knowledge
01:15I also wanted to develop my clinical assessment skills,
01:18sharpen my communication skills
01:21and teamwork.
01:28We wear face masks, N95, face shields, and
01:32goggles—our essentials when going to work.
01:35It's really a requirement
01:37You do get the chance to pee or go on a "bladder break"
01:39or eat after four hours
01:40It really depends on you.
01:43You can at least change your hazmat suit once
01:47It depends how benign your shift is
01:50If your shift is toxic,
01:52you might not be able to go on break.
01:55And you need to finish all your tasks
01:58within your shift
02:00So usually, we only get to eat or drink after our duties.
02:04And we have to maximize our PPEs.
02:09Since there's a shortage
02:11and of course, they don't come cheap
02:14So once you get inside the patient's room,
02:17you should do everything you have to do.
02:20so you don't need to keep coming back.
02:23And the end of our shifts,
02:25We take a bath thoroughly and sanitize ourselves
02:28before going out of the unit.
02:30And we practice all the precautionary measures all the time.
02:40I had one patient who was in the CCU
02:43who was intubated
02:45and had a lot of inotropes
02:47The patient was already unconscious
02:51Then his relatives asked me
02:53if they could do a
02:54video call with the patient, their dad.
02:56So I borrwed a tablet
02:58from the other room.
03:02We started the video call with "hi's" and "hello's"
03:04They asked how the patient was
03:05So I explained his condition
03:09And then suddenly
03:10the wife of the patient said
03:14if he could no longer take it,
03:16it was okay, and
03:16that he could go ahead and rest peacefully already.
03:20I thought to myself, "Oh no!"
03:23And then after maybe 30 minutes of video call,
03:26we said bye to his family
03:27by waving his hand.
03:28I took his hand like this and
03:29waved it like this.
03:32It turned out to be his last wave to his family.
03:36I'm about to cry.
03:37The patient's relatives
03:39they kept saying "thank you"
03:40for taking care of their dad
03:45They wished they were by his side, too.
03:49But I was the one
03:51beside their dad during his final moments
03:57The family was grateful.
03:58I was very touched.
04:00And they were saying
04:04that they were proud of me.
04:06"You're a hero, you sacrificed a lot."
04:09"We know your job is tough."
04:14That's when I felt so appreciated
04:16as a nurse.