On nursing, and why I wrote 40 Days of Hope for Healthcare Heroes

Our oldest son has been working as an RN in a designated COVID-19 intensive care unit since the first days of the pandemic. I have been working with cancer patients and as a hospital-based case manager. Most of my dearest friends are healthcare workers. None of us signed up to work during a pandemic, but we take the assignments we are given and we do the work. We don’t stop. And we don’t ever quit. 

Sometimes willpower leads to words. Other times, it’s passion and heartache and brokenness. When I found this opinion piece published by the New York Times on February 24th, I realized where my newfound words came from: ambivalence and despair. Viruses come and go, but the post-traumatic stress in healthcare workers will remain for a long, long time. This video shows why. My upcoming book is a small, loaves-and-fishes attempt to offer words of hope hope to my colleagues in these trying times. (Matthew 14:13-21)

I wanted to link up to this New York Times piece so that others can see firsthand what we go through every day as nurses. Forewarning: this is not an easy piece to watch; in fact, you may not be able to watch it all the way through. It’s awful. It’s devastating. But it’s real. And it’s important.
Click here or any of the other links to go directly to the page. 

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Death, Through a Nurse’s Eyes

A short film offering a firsthand perspective of the brutality of the pandemic inside a Covid-19 I.C.U.Video by Alexander Stockton and Lucy King

“The short film allows you to experience the brutality of the pandemic from the perspective of nurses inside a Covid-19 intensive care unit.

“Opinion Video producer Alexander Stockton spent several days reporting at the Valleywise Medical Center in Phoenix. Two I.C.U. nurses wore cameras to show what it’s like to care for the sickest Covid patients a year into the pandemic.

“So many Americans have died in hospitals without family by their side, but they were not alone. Nurses brush patients’ teeth, change their catheters and hold their hands in their final moments.

“In just a year, we’ve lost half a million Americans to Covid-19. Vaccinations may be offering some relief, but inside I.C.U.s, nurses continue to contend with the trauma and grief of America’s carousel of death.”
 

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Again, watch with caution. And please pray for healthcare workers today.