'This by far has been the worst wave. Period': Saint John, N.B. ER nurse describes life on the frontlines

A registered nurse at the Saint John Regional Hospital’s emergency department, Amanda Cormier, can describe what’s going on behind hospital doors.

She’s been a registered nurse with Horizon Health for over 16 years, and says this particular wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is extra challenging.

“When the pandemic first started, the first wave, second wave, third wave, fourth wave, we used to see people just come in with COVID. They were only sick with that. Now we're seeing people come in with strokes, they've broken their hip, they've had a heart attack, they've had a car accident. And then, we're swabbing people and they're coming back positive,” she said, in a virtual interview from her home in between night shifts. “So they're in with something else and now they have COVID on top of it. That is a much worse place to be sitting as a health-care system. That is why the system is the way it is right now.”

Because of the uncertainty, hospital staff are to wear personal protective equipment from top to bottom – and Cormier says even taking off a mask and putting on a new one can be a risk.

“We are wearing gowns that don’t breathe, there’s no air, it’s basically putting a garbage bag on and tying it. You wear an N95, and you absolutely don’t get any wiggle room with it, it’s sealed to your face and causes a lot of pressure marks on your face. You’re wearing gloves, you’re wearing a hair covering, you’re wearing all of this together,” she said. “And you could be in a room for five, six, seven hours like that. Can't eat, can't drink, can't go pee. And this is the state that you're going to work in for as many hours as it takes until you stabilize a patient, until you get them off to the ICU, or until you get a negative test. Take your pick.”

The Saint John Regional Hospital has been hit particularly hard this wave.

As of Wednesday, 80 staff in the Saint John area were off because of COVID-19 related reasons, according to Margaret Melanson, vice president of Quality and Patient-Centred Care for Horizon Health.

Cormier also works part-time as a paramedic, and while she loves both jobs, she says the lack of human resources is weighing heavy on those who are still trying to keep the system together.

She says there’s sometimes fewer beds too.

“A lot of patients are coming in and being isolated right away, which is fantastic. Hopefully it will decrease the spread of the virus in hospitals but you can only isolate so many folks before you run out of physical rooms,” she said. “Beds - there's no bed to necessarily send someone too...so we're seeing people stay in some departments, such as the emergency department, for maybe up to three, four, five days before we can move them off - and that's really detrimental to anyone’s care.”

New Brunswick's Green Party Leader David Coon says the province should have seen this coming.

He believes money needs to be spent on ensuring that those who want to get into the health-care field, have access to the education.

That could allow universities that offer nursing, like the University of New Brunswick and Université de Moncton, to accept more into their programs.

“I’ve said in the past that the system was very fragile and it wouldn’t take much to top over the house of cards that it was allowed to become and that is what’s happening with the pandemic,” he said.

Cormier says she knows several people who graduated less than five years ago, and are no longer working in the profession.

She even accepted a different position in November, was supposed to make the move in January, but because of the red phase, many are being redeployed to the emergency department or intensive care units, including Cormier.

“You try to not dread going into your next shift knowing that the next one’s not going to be any worse than the last one, but you feel defeated, even before you start,” she said. “It takes longer to recover on your days off, you’re a lot more absent from your family, you might be there but I’m mentally not there. I’m tired, we’re tired…you can only pour from that empty glass so often and eventually your body goes, ‘No, I don’t want to do this anymore.’”