Göttingen. Many nurses are leaving their jobs in the fourth corona wave. Those who stay lack perspective. How do you hold out?
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When a patient dies, Lenard Bornemann sits down with him and holds his hand one last time. No matter how stressful it is right now – none of the corona patients should die alone. Visitors are in Corona area of the intensive care unit forbidden. When it’s over, the 24-year-old usually goes outside and smokes a cigarette. “There have been times when doctors and nurses cried together,” he says. He has been working in the intensive care unit for three years University Medicine Göttingen.
Actually, he still likes his job. But since the beginning of the corona pandemic, there have been fewer and fewer success stories. And too many dead. “You give everything, try everything and no matter what you set out to do, it usually doesn’t work. I want that to stop, ”says Bornemann. On the Intensive care unit in Göttingen 16 of the total of 22 intensive care beds were occupied by corona patients in mid-December. Four of them are no longer infectious. According to a spokesman, the Occupancy numbers change daily. According to Personnel key A nurse normally looks after 1.5 patients. Due to the considerable shortage of staff, this is often not possible, says the deputy head of the station, who does not want to read her name in the newspaper. It is currently more common to take care of at least two corona patients. “One would have to actually have a lot more rest breaks and shouldn’t look after too many patients in one shift, ”says the 39-year-old.
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Often consequential damage to citizens with severe corona disease
the Treatment of seriously ill people with Covid is particularly complex. Ventilation, circulation and blood pressure must be closely monitored. You need medication to relieve symptoms, lower fever, stabilize the circulatory system, relieve pain, prevent blood clotting or relax the muscles. For intubated and Ecmo patients who are ventilated by an external heart-lung machine, the Mortality rate in Göttingen at around 50 percent, says the 39-year-old nurse. Those who survive a difficult course often have to relearn many things and often suffer from massive consequential damage. “Many of these patients have probably had most of their lives behind them,” estimates Bornemann.
About 90 percent of Covid patients who are currently fighting for their lives in the intensive care unit are unvaccinated, according to the university clinic. Bettina Scharff (53), Bornemann’s colleague and intensive care nurse for 30 years, does the “stunned, desperate and sometimes angry“. When the vaccination was there and there was no corona patient on her ward for the first time this summer, she cried tears of happiness. Now the situation is more dramatic than ever before. She no longer knows what to build her hope on.
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Unvaccinated patients often resist therapy, downplaying the disease
Occasionally there is unvaccinated patientswho resisted their therapy and downplayed the disease, dismissing it as a cold, says Scharff. She was glad that she didn’t have to talk to these patients. Like almost all corona patients, they are already intubatedwhen they arrive in the intensive care unit and cannot speak anymore because of it.
Bornemann it becomes increasingly difficult to show compassion for these people. Because he is afraid that this feeling will prevail, he no longer wants to know whether a patient has been vaccinated or not. “Of course we fight for these patients, even if they are against the vaccination. This is my job, I want this person to survive, ”says the nurse. And yet it would make life for him and his colleagues a lot easier if the undecided also got vaccinated.
Nurses are leaving their jobs – 3000 fewer ventilation beds available
Frustration, tiredness and exhaustion are currently causing many nurses to quit their jobs. A survey by the German Hospital Institute has shown that nationwide 72 percent of the hospitals surveyed have fewer intensive care staff available than at the end of 2020. According to the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine (Divi), 3000 ventilation beds are therefore less available in the fourth corona wave Available than a year ago. In Lower Saxony, according to a spokesman for the Lower Saxony Hospital Society, the personnel situation is in almost all clinics very tense. At the University Medical Center Göttingen, several specialists are leaving the intensive care unit this winter.
Why they are still there despite everything is difficult for Scharff, Bornemann and their 39-year-old colleague to answer. The support in the team and the personal environment help you not to lose courage, say all three. Take a long walk, for example, to relax with the dog or going out with friends. So that you can enjoy your job again, demand better working conditions, more staff and more wages. For Bornemann it is clear: “I am not a religious sister who follows any faith and works out of charity. I do this because it is my job and I want this job to be paid sensibly. ”
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