Five years ago, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. I remember the day as if it were only yesterday. The memories are vivid in my mind; the heartaches of losing friends and numerous patients leave an emotional scar in our hearts that will haunt us for the rest of our lives. The fear remains that another pandemic might come again and change our world again.
I am not the only one remembering that day. The burnout and
the PTSD that followed were real.
I wrote about my burnout:
At the beginning of April 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic burnt
me out. At one point, I was ready to quit nursing. I wanted to run as far away
as I could, away from dying patients, away from the heartaches.
I remember waking up in bed, physically drained from a
fitful sleep, and emotionally shattered by the friends and patients we lost. I
debated calling out sick that morning because I dreaded hearing the frequent
overhead pages for the code team. For the first time in my long nursing career,
I was at a crossroads I never thought I could ever be at; I thought of quitting.
I wanted to run as far away as I could, away from dying patients, away from the
heartaches. But I could not abandon my staff, so I stayed resolute in fighting
alongside my courageous staff in that dreadful war.
Yes, we survived. There was a light at the end of the
tunnel. It was just taking one day at a time, putting one step ahead, until
finally, the vaccine came, and later on, we finally took off our mask.
Five years later, I feel privileged to be part of the army
of healthcare staff worldwide who battled the war. Today, I browsed through the photojournals that chronicled our fight. We are bruised but still
standing.
https://fliphtml5.com/ywabu/nkyh
https://fliphtml5.com/ywabu/bmzj
