ZWOLLE – Part of the Acute Admission Unit of Isala was already set up as a cohort unit for corona patients at the end of September.
“That was a difficult moment for everyone,” says AOA nurse Anne Trompert. “We put everything we had experienced during the first wave in a drawer and closed it. Now that drawer opened again. That was very intense. Fortunately, we can talk to each other about this. ”
New
“The first wave was overwhelming,” says Anne. Everything was so new! There were no clear protocols, no guidelines and we still had a lot to learn about the course of the disease. Nor could we rely on our clinical view. Normally you can see how someone is in bed, how they are doing. In the beginning we thought ‘things are going reasonably well’ with the corona patients, but after measurement it turned out that the oxygen content was much too low. ”
“The patients often did not realize this themselves and that sometimes made it very treacherous. It was a tough and bizarre period. Over time, the number of corona patients declined and we became a regular AOA again. That was nice. However, Corona has never left. There was always a single corona patient or a patient with a suspicion of corona in our department. But they were in single rooms strictly separated from the rest of the patients in the AOA. So now part of our department is again set up for corona patients. ‘;
Buddy system
As in the first wave, the cohort department works with a buddy system. Anne: “That means that you always work together with a colleague. This is often an AOA nurse together with an I-Flex nurse. We both know exactly how our patients are doing and if one takes a break, the other stays on the ward. In addition, thanks to the buddy system, we can better support our vulnerable corona patients. ‘; In order to be better prepared for working in the cohort department and to learn more about corona, the I-Flex nurses and nurses from other departments have followed a training course in recent months. “We are very happy that they can support us again during this second wave.”;
Again the shoulders underneath
The upscaling went faster than Anne and her colleagues expected. “Of course we saw what was happening in the west of the country. And we have also taken over patients from hospitals there so that regular care can continue. Imagine how hard that is. Then you are already seriously ill and you have to go to the other side of the country. Now we are also seeing more and more corona patients from our own region in the department. It’s tough that it starts again. But we have a passion for our profession and will continue to do our very best for our patients. We remain competitive. But we sometimes feel vulnerable. Then we say to each other ‘we can do this’, we put our shoulders to the wheel and we also fight hard for these patients. We will not give up! ”
The media reports of illegal parties and other violations of the corona measures can misunderstand Anne and her colleagues. ‘I find that difficult to comprehend. We see here every day how wrong things can go and then people are partying carefree… Of course I understand that the measures have an enormous impact and that people are done with them. But please, stick to the rules. Especially now that so many new infections are added. ”
Younger people
The patients on the ward are generally younger than during the first wave, Anne sees. ” And because more people can and get tested, people know sooner that they are ill. This makes people more likely to raise the alarm. Because patients are on other medications, they seem to recover a bit earlier and the course of the virus seems a little less progressive in most cases. The vast majority of patients go home from our ward and fortunately do not have to be admitted to the ICU. That is positive. I notice that patients are quite impressed when they have corona and are in hospital on a cohort ward. It’s not nothing either. They are afraid that they will have to go to the ICU and realize that they will certainly not be healthy when they can go home again. The recovery process is long. ”
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