While we are stuck in our homes to save ourselves from the life-threatening pandemic and take precautionary measures to prevent the coronavirus from spreading further, there are hundreds of doctors, nurses, and their supporting medical units working together to save lives from the disease and provide us safety and assurance. Hospitals around the world, especially the ones in China, France, and parts of the United States are flooding in with new cases daily while putting extreme pressure on the medical units and the members. Hence, many hospitals have turned several sections of the nursing home to the units for COVID-19 cases to combat the seriousness and the overwhelming pressure.
Evelyn Goroza and Thomas Cava, two Northeastern Univesity medical students, are now put on the front lines of the COVID-19 cases to work as patient care technicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre in Boston. In January, they joined the medical centre as co-operatives in the cardiovascular intensive-care unit and the cardiac surgery floor, which was transformed into COVID-19 emergency cases for the time being. In their job, their main responsibility lies in assisting the nurses by checking vital signs, performing electrocardiograms, and helping patients to eat and move.
According to Goroza, a third-year pre-medical biology student, this experience is “extremely shocking, novel, and life-changing” and her junior, Cava, a second-year biology student believes an important part of his job is comforting the patients by talking and being respectful of their situation. The strict personal protection protocols which include the change of the protective gowns and sanitisation of hands before and after any interaction with the patients cost them much more time than usual.
Goroza also encourages the proper knowledge of the situation and about the protective measures; as she also mentions the misconception around requiring an N95 mask for regular use as a protective shield against the contagious virus. For both of them, staying and continuing their service for the emergency unit was a choice and they see the greatest opportunity in this situation to even contribute the minimum.
Rubena Bose