{"id":481208,"date":"2022-08-04T18:44:25","date_gmt":"2022-08-04T15:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/ive-only-been-a-nurse-for-eight-months-the-chaos-is-killing-me\/"},"modified":"2022-08-04T18:44:25","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T15:44:25","slug":"ive-only-been-a-nurse-for-eight-months-the-chaos-is-killing-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/ive-only-been-a-nurse-for-eight-months-the-chaos-is-killing-me\/","title":{"rendered":"#I\u2019ve only been a nurse for eight months. The chaos is killing me."},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3f97a056e9a\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3f97a056e9a\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/ive-only-been-a-nurse-for-eight-months-the-chaos-is-killing-me\/#%E2%80%9CIve_only_been_a_nurse_for_eight_months_The_chaos_is_killing_me%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;I\u2019ve only been a nurse for eight months. The chaos is killing me.&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CIve_only_been_a_nurse_for_eight_months_The_chaos_is_killing_me%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;I\u2019ve only been a nurse for eight months. The chaos is killing me.&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n                            Jacelyn Wingerter is a Saskatchewan hospital nurse facing the impossible. \u201cWe have 35 beds in our department, and 100 patients needing treatment.\u201d\n                        <\/div>\n<div>\n                                                                        <em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Jacelyn Wingerter<\/strong> became a registered nurse in January and has worked in a Saskatchewan ER ever since. At only 22, she says being on the front lines of a collapsing health care system has crushed her stamina and her spirit. This is her story.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014As told to Carly Lewis\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I was a teenager, I spent a lot of time in hospitals with my grandmother while she battled breast and pancreatic cancer. I was surrounded by amazing nurses who cared for her and comforted my family. I decided back then I wanted to help others just like they did. I wanted to be there for people on the worst days of their lives, and try to make them feel even the slightest bit better.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After four years in university, I became a registered nurse eight months ago and now work at a Saskatchewan hospital. I started during the pandemic, so I understood things would be intense. I never could have imagined how bad it would get, or how burnt out I would be at the age of 22.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our emergency room is severely over capacity every day. The waiting room has space for about 20 people, but we typically have 40 to 50 patients waiting for care. Patients in the waiting room are crammed shoulder-to-shoulder while we\u2019re still in a pandemic. There\u2019s nowhere for them to go. Right now our average wait time is around eight hours, maybe longer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Canada, hospitals use the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale, or CTAS, to triage patients. CTAS2 is the lowest someone can go before requiring a trauma bed im<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a>tely. It\u2019s not uncommon for us to have 10 or more CTAS2 patients in the waiting room with chest pains experiencing possible heart attacks, people with broken bones, or level-two traumas\u2014for example, people who\u2019ve been in a car accident. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On a recent shift it seemed as though triage was broadcasting a CTAS2 in the waiting room every five minutes. Most of those patients needed a bed with a monitor and one-on-one care. We couldn\u2019t give it to them. They had to wait.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>RELATED: I\u2019m a veteran ER doctor. I can\u2019t believe what I\u2019m seeing.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We had a cancer patient the other day who was short of breath. They were not well, at all, and had to sit in the waiting room for five hours before getting a bed. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our admitted patients\u2014the people who who made it out of the waiting room\u2014are currently waiting upward of 100 hours in the ER to get a bed on their designated ward. Not a single bed is open. These are patients admitted for neurology, cardiology, internal medicine and oncology and who require a few days in the hospital. We don\u2019t have room for them. When I went in on Sunday night there was a patient who had been stuck in the ER since the previous Wednesday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paramedics line the halls waiting to offload their patients. We\u2019ve had EMS waiting more than 12 hours in our hallway with their patients before they can return to the streets. These issues have a domino effect\u2014not only are emergency rooms scarily overcrowded, but they keep paramedics tied up at the hospital, unable to respond to emergency calls. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019ve also had STARS Air Ambulance stuck waiting in the hallway for a bed. If anyone had needed to be airlifted during that time, they would have had to wait.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We have 35 beds in our department, and 100 patients needing treatment. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019ve been treating patients in hallways. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We recently had to squeeze two beds against our main desk. There\u2019s no privacy, not even a curtain, and patients\u2019 medical information can be overheard by anyone nearby. With the lights on and nurses running around, they can\u2019t get any sleep. These patients come into our care to get better. How can they get better when they can\u2019t even rest?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There was a bad car accident here recently. Two people died. I keep thinking about what we would have done if they\u2019d needed to come in. I don\u2019t know that we would have been able to keep them alive. We just didn\u2019t have the hands, or the beds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For the past three months we\u2019ve been short-staffed every shift. It\u2019s not because of Covid\u2014it\u2019s because nurses are burnt out, and many have left the profession. We should have at least 19 nurses on each shift, but sometimes we\u2019ve been nine nurses short, six nurses short. When I left a shift last week we were five nurses short, so we closed down part of the ER for the night. I haven\u2019t seen any improvement. Things continue to get worse. It\u2019s been complete chaos from day one.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I feel defeated. I\u2019m doing everything I can but it\u2019s not enough. The number of patients is just too high. I leave every day feeling like there was something I missed or something I could have done better, wishing I could have helped more people, the way my grandmother\u2019s nurses helped my family. I wish I\u2019d had time to at least say hi and have a short conversation with my patients and show them I care, but I just run from room to room for my entire 12-hour shift. I have to start IVs, deliver medications, take patient vitals and update charts. I don\u2019t have time to build r<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ort or provide a therapeutic relationship to my patients.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My co-workers and I try to take our breaks, but we usually end up skipping a few of them. Sometimes, when we do go on break, we get called back out. We just have to keep going. People need our help, and if we don\u2019t help them no one else can.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Outside of work, I don\u2019t really cope with it. I don\u2019t recognize myself anymore. On my days off I sleep all the time, because I\u2019m so tired and have no energy to do anything. I used to go to the gym five or six days a week. I played sports, I walked my dogs. Now I\u2019m just too exhausted. My personality has become jaded. I\u2019m carrying a lot of anger and frustration I wasn\u2019t carrying before. It\u2019s hard to sleep when I get home from a shift. I can\u2019t stop thinking about everyone at the hospital.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I love my job and my co-workers, but I leave every shift feeling incredibly upset at the state of our health care system. Every single staff member is stretched to their limits. In the last two years, many nurses, including myself, have started taking antidepressants.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government needs to realize our health care system isn\u2019t collapsing\u2014it has already collapsed. We need more funding and more beds. But even if we get more beds, where is the staff coming from? There\u2019s a lot of work that needs to be done on recruiting and retaining staff. So many nurses are leaving the profession. Even eight months in, I don\u2019t know how long I can continue to work like this. I have at least 30 years to go. At this rate it\u2019s not sustainable. We will literally be killing ourselves if it continues like this.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nurses are basically dying to be heard by our government. It\u2019s been months of horror, and no change. I hope they hear us soon.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async defer crossorigin=\"anonymous\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/general\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/society\/health\/ive-only-been-a-nurse-for-eight-months-the-chaos-is-killing-me\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I\u2019ve only been a nurse for eight months. The chaos is killing me.&#8221; Jacelyn Wingerter is a Saskatchewan hospital nurse facing the impossible. \u201cWe have 35 beds in our department, and 100 patients needing treatment.\u201d Jacelyn Wingerter became a registered nurse in January and has worked in a Saskatchewan ER ever since. At only 22,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":481209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Jacelyn_treated-e1659617667725-764x431.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[132040,60456,131550,73014,132041,132042,2244,2169],"class_list":["post-481208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-burnout","tag-covid","tag-emergency-rooms","tag-health-care","tag-health-care-system","tag-nurse","tag-nurses","tag-pandemic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}