One on One with Cristely on the COVID-19 Unit

Tell us a little bit about what you do — what kind of setting you’re in, what your patient population looks like, what your duties consist of, etc.

I work in the only Level 1 trauma center in San Francisco, California. Originally, I was hired as a travel nurse to fill a 13-week contract on one of their Medical-Surgical Telemetry units.

I care for patients with a variety of medical conditions including pneumonia, congestive heart failure (CHF), hypertension, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), sepsis, falls, dehydration –the list goes on. My patients range in age from young adults to geriatric patients.

In general, my responsibilities would include admissions, discharges, medication administration, wound care, head to toe assessments, cardiac monitoring, and drawing labs. I provide total care to patients for a duration of 12 hours. That was before COVID-19 hit.

We are now the COVID-19 unit. The population is still the same, and so is the past medical history and our responsibilities. However, we now have healthy adults showing up with COVID and we must cluster care because the patients are on isolation.

What kind of training is required as a COVID-response team member?

We didn’t receive any training. We have signs that instruct how to don and doff personal protective equipment (PPE). Every day, instructions are changing and messages are given through huddles. You just have to know that you must keep an eye on your patients’ telemetry monitors and cluster care to preserve PPE.

What have been your biggest challenges during this crisis?

The lack of proper PPE, the lack of clear communication, the public’s inability to listen to the government’s requests to shelter in place. Tensions are rising amongst staff in the hospital from fear of taking home COVID. The lack of humanity from some people.

Being away from my family and my daughter is hard. My daughter is on the east coast. I know that because of my high exposure risk, I won’t be able to go home any time soon.

What’s one thing you love about your specialty? One thing you hate?

I love having the ability to provide a caring energy to each of my patients. They are placed on isolation with barely any human contact. Although my time is short, I attempt to meet their needs by anticipating them. Like, bringing extra snacks, pain meds, or even extra blankets.

I hate to watch my patients suffer. The cough that some of them get is like they’re drowning, gasping for air. It’s truly heartbreaking to watch, seeming as if none of your interventions are actually helping.

What’s one thing that you’d like the public to know about this disease, and the fight against it?

Stay home, wash your hands. This disease process has a rapid decline and although most will recover, some will not. This could be your mother, father, friend, or neighbor.

Let’s do our parts, so we can try to flatten the curve. It’s gotten to the point where people with serious health conditions fear coming to the hospital in fear of contracting COVID.

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Follow Cristely on Instagram to stay up to date on her battle from the front lines. Also, don’t forget to check out our one on one with Lyrea, who works on the Special Clinical Studies Unit, a highly specialized infections disease ward at the NIH.