Mount Nittany nurse: Local COVID unit shows ‘the crisis is here.’ Do your part to help

When I see people out in the community not wearing masks, I wish they could see the COVID unit at Mount Nittany Medical Center. When I see pictures of a large group gathering or hear about someone going to a big indoor party, I wish they could see our COVID unit. I wish everyone who thinks COVID isn’t real or isn’t dangerous could spend a day in the shoes of one of our nurses.

In the spring, we were all waiting and preparing for a crisis that didn’t materialize as forecasts had predicted. This is different.

Now, the crisis is here.

Picture this image: Nurses and others tending to COVID patients, all of whom are sick enough to require hospitalization, wearing full protective gear. Anyone who leaves the unit for a break or a meal has to take it all off and put it all back on again when they return. It’s exhausting. It’s stressful. It’s hard.

Many of our patients have trouble breathing. Most will recover, but some will not. Some will go home but continue to feel the effects for a long time afterward. Some will be lost. And they will go through this without their loved ones near — seeing them only through video calls whenever that’s possible. We try to comfort them, to talk to them about their lives and their families, to hold their hands.

Despite all the precautions we take, members of our staff are susceptible to COVID as well. Staff members and their families worry about getting sick.

And when we go into work every day, we know it’s possible that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines will have changed to address new information we’ve learned, and that we’re all going to have to adapt to new protocols that weren’t in place the day before.

When we go home, exhausted, our kids still need our help with schoolwork, someone still needs to make dinner and, of course, the bills still need to be paid. And we look at our families and hope we haven’t brought the virus home to them.

For anyone who thinks this isn’t real, let me assure you: This is as real as it gets. It’s relentless. Our health system has a plan, we are implementing it, we are doing our best to support each other just as we support our patients every day. We are determined to persevere, to be as relentless as the virus and to stick with this until we defeat it.

But no one should underestimate the toll it is taking.

Please, please, please help us. The holidays are around the corner and the number of COVID cases in our community is expected to remain high. Believe me, we want to be celebrating with our friends and relatives as much as you do, but some of our friends and relatives may not be here next year unless we reduce the spread of COVID.

So please take measures recommended by health officials. It’s simple.

Social distance. Avoid large gatherings. Stay at home as much as possible. Wash your hands. And please, wear a mask.