Nurses bolstered by support
There's a good news/bad news situation to mark Wednesday's start of National Nurses Week.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the annual awards ceremony for nurses at Butler Memorial Hospital being either postponed or canceled altogether.
But nurses say there's been an increase in appreciation for health care workers in the form of food, cards and gift card donations from the community.
And starting this week, Butler Memorial Hospital will start performing elective surgeries again at a reduced level, according to Karen Allen, the vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer at the hospital.
But Saturday also brings an end to the hospital's payroll protection program which paid nurses in closed or shrunken hospital units their full wages despite a reduced workload.
Nurses will be forced to use their vacation time to make up for lost wages or file for unemployment, according to Tammy May, a registered nurse in the intensive care unit and president of the Butler Local of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals that represents 400 staff nurses at Butler Memorial Hospital.
May said beginning in mid-March the hospital canceled any elective surgeries and closed some of its units in preparation for an influx of COVID-19 patients.
“Staff hours have been downsized due to low patient census, and the hospital has been generous in providing pay,” May said.
“But we're unsure going forward after Saturday about pay,” she said.
[naviga:h3]Patient load [/naviga:h3]
“People don't want to come to the ER for just anything now because of risk of exposure,” said Taylor Myers, a registered nurse in the emergency department. “People are scared about what's going on in the world.”
Myers said many people who would have come to the emergency room before the pandemic are now consulting with their family doctor instead.
Allen said elective procedures, which were halted March 18, are again being performed at the hospital.
“We're going to have 50 percent of elective procedures,” Allen said. The lack of elective operations over the last six weeks has strained hospital finances, she added.
“Hopefully as we restart services, the community will come to get these services,” she said.
Hospital teams plan to meet daily to monitor bed capacity, personal protective equipment status, COVID-19 testing and COVID-19 admissions.
<h3>National Nurses Week</h3>It's against the backdrop of a partial return to normal hospital operations that National Nurses Week begins Wednesday and ends Tuesday, Florence Nightingale's birthday.Not only has Butler Memorial Hospital postponed its awards ceremony, but it also canceled its participation in the Cameos of Caring Program & Awards which honors exceptional nurses throughout the region in a ceremony at Pittsburgh's David L. Lawrence Convention Center.But the loss of the ceremonies has been more than made up for by the outpouring of community support, said John DeSanti of New Castle, an intensive care nurse for 18 years.“The support has been unbelievably tremendous, the food, the messages of support, the cards,” he said. “In 26 years of nursing, I've never seen anything like it. It's been tremendous.”“The community sends food. They've donated to Cummings Coffee Shop to get gift cards,” Myers said.The goodwill message, Myers said, is reaching health care workers.“Just showing their support through all of this makes a world of difference,” Myers said.Allen agreed.“The nurses and the rest of the hospital have been overwhelmed with the community support received throughout the pandemic. The outpouring of cards, food, masks, drawings etc., made it feel like nurses day every day,” Allen said.
