NURSES
SPEAK
Four local nurses share what it's like at work and at home as they fight to save us from COVID-19 — and ourselves.
By Todd VanSickle Ask any nurse right now; there’s a good chance he or she has a story about crying in the bathroom while at work. Although nurses have always had to deal with stress on the job, the COVID-19 pandemic has only made things worse as a second wave pushes northern Michigan hospitals to capacity, leaving nurses to care for more patients infected with a highly politicized but deadly virus. Prior to the pandemic, nurses experienced workplace stress at a higher rate than most other professions, according to the American Holistic Nurses' Association. The pandemic, however, has greatly exacerbated stressors, including physical demands, management issues, lack of resources, and difficulty balancing home and work responsibilities. Additionally, nurses are at a higher risk of being exposed to the virus, all the while confronting conspiracy theorists and naysayers as the number of COVID patients and related deaths continue to grow at alarming rates. Northern Express recently spoke to four nurses who deal with the effects of COVID-19 — at work, in public, and at home — on a daily basis. Nurse Robin Walicki, BSN, RN District 10 Health Department Nurse Robin Walicki has been the clinical supervisor for District 10 Health Department’s Family Health Division for
about a year: “Right before COVID came along,” she said, with an uneasy chuckle. “It has really shifted what we do.” Walicki’s workload has more than doubled since the pandemic. She normally handles communicable diseases and immunizations. Nowadays, the nurse said COVID has been the focus of her job. In the spring, the District 10 Health Department was approving testing by various providers and sending numbers to Lansing. Walicki said making sure correct data and numbers are accurately reported to the state is a big part of her job. “If someone was in the emergency room or physician's office, the provider had to fill out a four-page form. It was created by the CDC, and we basically had to make sure that the testing was appropriate,” Walicki said. COVID-19 is tracked through the Michigan disease surveillance systems where communicable disease positive results are recorded. “We were working around the clock — and then very quickly it really ramped up here, and we had a new role to play,” Walicki said. “A lot of what we do is been notifying people to stay home, interviewing them, and doing case investigations for contact tracing. As the numbers have increased steadily throughout the year, we've had more and more work to do in that role.” She said it’s disheartening when she looks at the data and interviews and sees that people are not staying at home, especially when they’re sick, or not wearing masks.
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“We're seeing the outcome, because our [number of] cases are so much higher, and we're starting to see more deaths,” Walicki said. Making a tough situation worse: She receives a lot of angry phone calls from people claiming that COVID-19 is a hoax or telling her “It's not a big deal,” or “It's just the flu.” “For the most part, though, I would say, I have seen a lot of people really cooperate and really take it seriously — more than what I thought,” Walicki said. “But there is a very vocal group out there that doesn't believe in what we're doing, and that can be very frustrating.” Some of those people include Walicki’s own family. Her parents live nearby, and she worries that they will fall ill with the virus, but her daughter and husband have different views. “I live right in the middle of the spectrum of opinions,” Walicki said. “My husband does the complete opposite of my parents, and I have to strike the balance in my own house in order to get along with my spouse. Sometimes my husband and my 25-year-old daughter say what I’m doing isn't making a difference, and to let people live their life.” Many nights when the nurse comes home from work, she takes a minute to grab something to eat — usually a frozen dinner — then starts up her computer and is back working again. “It really does impact your family life, because it's all you talk about, and your family really doesn't want to hear about it
24/7,” Walicki said. “I've had a lot of issues with my husband being upset. We had some interventions, like getting off my phone or computer. I am trying to do better, but it's a challenge.” The stress can sometimes be too much, she said, and she has hit her breaking point several times, usually at work. “I had some meltdowns at work in the middle of the summer,” Walicki said. “I had a week where I was pretty delicate. Each day I was crying at work for a couple of hours — and partly because I feel bad for our team and how much stress they’re under. We keep pivoting and adjusting, adding to our team, training new team members. It really wears you out.” The last time Walicki cried at work was a couple of months ago when her manager came into her office and witnessed all of her devices ringing and pinging. That was right around the time when area schools began seeing a rise in positive COVID cases. “I just couldn’t take it anymore, and I cried, like, the whole day,” Walicki said. Despite the challenges and struggles she faces at home and at the health department, she has found a silver lining in such critical work: It’s creating closer relationships with the community and various organizations. “We're trying really hard at the local health department,” Walicki said. “Even though sometimes it's quiet from us out there in the social media world, we are putting in countless hours and weekends — everything we can do to keep people safe.”
