Samaritan’s frontline nurses have adapted for the long haul during the coronavirus pandemic

MOSES LAKE — Usually, Samaritan Healthcare’s staff would have been able to celebrate 73-year-old Sandy Martin, an intensive care unit nurse, for her extraordinary 45 years in the medical field.

Instead, Martin donned a surgical gown and gloves, mask, hairnet, and face shield as she worked in the ICU, where, as has become typical, every bed was full Friday with various illnesses among patients. For many like Martin, who have been at the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic, it has been a very long nine months.

“This has been something else, probably the worst in my whole career,” Martin said. “It’s been trying – my retirement is looking a little bit better.”

Martin moved to Moses Lake from Atlanta, Georgia, after she graduated and worked at Georgia Baptist Hospital (now called Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center) in coronary intensive care for three years, nearly half a century ago. When she started working in Samaritan’s ICU around 42 years ago, there were only three beds, and it was common for her to work in another unit because there were no patients in the ICU.

As the hospital has expanded, so too has the workload of nurses like Martin who work in the ICU, she said. Still, the crush of cases from the coronavirus has been unprecedented.

“I don’t think I’ve been through anything like this,” Martin said. We’ve had a lot of really sick patients. This really hit hard.”

She’s gotten used to some of the things that have come with the pandemic, such as constantly wearing a tight-fit, medical-grade mask that leaves bruises, she said. Other things, such as the number of younger patients in their 30s and 40s who have gotten severely ill from a coronavirus infection, remain surprising.

There are still some semblances of normalcy that she holds onto, such as bringing her youngest grandson to school three days a week, she said. None of her family has gotten sick, which she is grateful for, she said, though she notes that most of her family is more worried about her than anyone else, given her age and workplace.

The concern is not without merit. Though Samaritan has managed to avoid a widespread outbreak among staff many worried back in March would be inevitable, there have been infections of staff in the ICU, Medical/Surgical Unit, and Mother-Baby Unit.

There have also been a number of infections among workers at Samaritan’s Respiratory Virus Evaluation Center, which opened in mid-March to consolidate testing, though those infections have all appeared to have occurred out in the community. Though Samaritan introduced full-time drive-thru testing in November to add to testing capacity, RVEC has been the primary testing site for the organization for nine months.

Some, like RVEC Nurse Virginia Muniz, have recently started working in the center. Muniz transferred from the hospital just last week. Carolyn Egts, a medical assistant also working in the RVEC, started last month, having graduated from Big Bend Community College. It has been strange to start working in the medical field deep into a pandemic, Egts said, but rewarding.

“It’s fast-paced and very exciting,” she said.

Registered Nurse Matt Gilbert, who has been working at the center since its inception, said that some of his initial anxiety about the pandemic has softened over the months.

“Toward the beginning of it, it was kind of scary working in here,” Gilbert said. “We didn’t know much about the virus. But the more time that has passed, it probably isn’t good, but you become more immune to being worried. You’re just doing your job.”

But he still thinks about his three little girls whenever he goes home, quickly discarding his work clothes and hopping in the shower. By the end of the workday he looks like someone punched him the nose, he added, due to the indentation left by his face mask.

“And my parents, they are older, so I worry about them,” Gilbert said. “There’s always people you love in your life, and I’m always afraid of getting them sick.”

Physician’s Assistant Rich Stowe, who has also worked at the RVEC since the beginning, recalled those first few weeks after the pandemic hit Grant County.

“The first weeks this was going on, we just didn’t know anything about it,” Stowe said. “I was stripping down in the garage and Clorox-ing myself and running to the shower, because we just didn’t know anything. The comfort level has improved dramatically since then.”

But many veteran medical workers are feeling the effects of a protracted pandemic, both at Samaritan and across the country, said Julie Nishida, a registered nurse and house supervisor at the hospital.

“I think morale is at a global low in the healthcare field,” Nishida said. “The coping mechanisms, people are exhausting those. Everyone has high stress in their life and you know what to do for high stress, but when there’s no end in sight, you can go out for a run, but how many times can you do that?”

“Every day you have to actively tell yourself to keep going,” she added.