Ashley Mendoza, a nurse that works at St Joseph’s Hospital explains what she goes through during the pandemic and the hardship she and her co-workers must deal with from March till September in 2020.

Ashley explains how this pandemic has changed her work style and as well as her co-workers when she says, “Working during the pandemic through COVID-19 has changed the way I care for my patients in the hospital. My day starts out entering only through one entrance into the hospital and our temperatures are taken. We answer if we are symptomatic of the screeners. If so, we are told to go home and quarantine for 2 weeks and then get tested. If no then we may proceed to our workday. We all must mandate a mask rule. We do hospital-wide testing on all patients. Working is scary because I am exposed to the virus many times a day. It takes approximately 3 minutes to put on the personal protective equipment. However, I must hurry because my patient needs me. They are hooked up to tele monitors, and oxygen, and some even intubated. It takes a village to treat patients. Between the multitude of life-saving meds, I administer to the team to turn patients and provide comfort care. Clustering care is essential and timing because these patients need rest. I am a nurse, therapist, counselor, and comforter for all the patients that I care for.”

Ashley Speaks about what it is like knowing that she may obtain the virus going to work and possibly bringing it back to her family and she talks about how it is indeed scary when she says

“It is scary knowing that I may bring the virus home to my family and kids. I didn’t see my extended family for a period at first because I kept my distance. There were lots of phone calls. Regarding my home family, I kept my distance”.

One of Ashley’s coworkers speaks about how they feel about this pandemic as well by talking about how it has made her scared and some more co-workers too when they say, “Deep down we are all scared. We are scared to see our patients go from 0-100 in one day at work. One minute they are on room air and a few hours later they are on their way to the ICU because they cannot breathe. They cannot maintain oxygen on their own. We are scared for our patients but don’t think for a second that we can’t do this. It’s our job and it is what we signed up for.”