More COVID cases mean more stress for UVA hospital staff

from C-VILLE Weekly | January 27 - February 2, 2021

by C-VILLE Weekly

Five new names are added to UVA’s enslaved laborers memorial

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UVA hospital still short staffed, nurses required to work extra shifts

By Brielle Entzminger

reporter@c-ville.com

Despite ample warnings from health experts, millions of people traveled across the country to visit family and friends for the holidays. Now, COVID cases have reached an alltime high—and health care workers are paying the price.

“The ICU has been completely full or close to full for most of the surge period, which really kicked off in December and is still going,” says a nurse aide at UVA hospital, who asked to remain anonymous to ensure the safety of his job. Last month, “we had to open a second acute care unit, which is for COVID patients who [need] just below ICU level care.”

For months, UVA hospital has not had enough staff to keep up with spikes in patients across all units, forcing current employees to work more shifts and longer hours. The staffing crisis has led to a new policy: All nurses and patient care technicians must take on two 12-hour shifts within every six week scheduling period, on top of the three 12-hour shifts they typically work every week—an 11 percent increase in hours on the job. Employees will receive increased hazard pay for these new shifts.

“A lot of us are pretty burned out already, especially the nurses that take care of COVID patients,” says pediatric nurse Danielle Christmas. “They are asking us to do more and more and more.”

“There are people doing this who have kids—how do you plan anything for your family around this?” says a part-time nurse aide, who also asked not to be named.

“When I go home I don’t have the energy to cook. I don’t want to clean. This is at the expense of the rest of our lives.”

UVA HOSPITAL PART-TIME NURSE AIDE

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