It wasn’t just the volume of COVID-19 patients that challenged local hospitals as the number of cases and hospitalizations began to rise.
It was the complexity of caring for these patients.
“One thing we learned about COVID is that almost every patient experiences it a little differently,” said Christy Escandon, UT Health Tyler’s chief nursing officer. COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit require more care than typical intensive care patients. “We designed the care of these patients really individually. Everyone’s reaction was just a little different. “
That’s why the small army of traveling medics that descended during the virus flood in the Longview-Tyler area was so important, Escandon said.
“We would not have been able to care for the number of COVID patients we could care for without them from our community,” she said.
This includes people like Erica Eghan from Chicago, who has been helping fight the pandemic at Christ Good Shepherd in Longview since December 12th. Eghan has been a nurse for seven years and a traveling nurse for four years.
“I just wanted to experience what it is like to work in a pandemic,” she said. Chicago had many COVID-19 patients, she said, but she knew there was a surge with more patients in places like New York and Texas.
Back in its day, when there were about 700 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in East Texas, there were about 1,300 traveling medical professionals working in the area – nurses, respiratory therapists, doctors, medical assistants, according to Beth Powell-Surface Hospital, manager of the on-call program for the regional Piney Woods Advisory Board.
The Advisory Board is part of a nationwide system of councils, each responsible for “developing, implementing and monitoring a regional plan for a trauma system for emergency services” and coordinating a program to prepare for hospitals.
In the case of COVID-19, this has meant regular meetings and communication with local hospitals in the Piney Woods 27-county area to distribute personal protective equipment from national supplies and coordinate with a state contractor to provide traveling nurses and other medicals Bring skilled workers if necessary, Powell-Surface said.
Traveling nurses and other health professionals benefit financially from higher salaries and more shifts. They typically work six 12-hour shifts a week with one day off. You’ll stay in hotels in the area and take the bus to and from work every day
“I go everywhere (in the hospital) – COVID (unit), floating everywhere in the hospital,” Eghan said.
Teresa Halcomb, Chief Nursing Officer of the Christ Good Shepherd Health Systems, praised the resources provided by the Regional Advisory Council.
“At the height of the COVID hospital stays in January, around 300 RAC nurses worked with our staff to care for nearly 200 COVID patients,” she said. “Fortunately, we’ve seen a dramatic decrease in COVID hospital stays in our community, and we currently have around 120 RAC professionals on our care teams. We are grateful to the RAC Nurses and Respiratory Therapists for their support and help in caring for our community throughout the pandemic. “
In light of the declines in local COVID-19 cases, Eghan said the agency she works for has let the traveling nurses know that they will “demobilize” some of the nurses each week.
She loved working for Christ Good Shepherd, she said.
“The people here are really nice. The management is great, ”she said.
Even so, the task was not without stress, for example when nurses have to talk to families about what is happening to a patient.
“It was a big challenge. It was intense and nerve-wracking, ”said Eghan. “It was a lot, especially navigating to talk to families and explain to them exactly what was going on.”
At first she was also concerned about the possibility of getting sick herself and took vitamin C, zinc, and Emergen-C to boost her immune system. She wears two masks and has a respirator.
“I wasn’t concerned at the time. I thought I was pretty safe, ”said Eghan. “We had a lot of supplies every time, so we were good.”
She spends a day off every week on Sunday and is working on her studies to become a psychiatrist.
“I’m trying to get it to work,” she said of her curriculum.
Longview Regional Medical Center has also deployed traveling nurses.
“Like other hospitals in Texas and across the country, our hospital benefited from the support of travel nurses who cared for our community during the waves of COVID, including some from the state,” said spokeswoman Libby Bryson.
The presence of the traveling nurses in East Texas also benefited the region in other ways.
‘Destitute’
When the pandemic broke out about a year ago, hotels were largely without business, said CJ Clayton, president of the Longview Hospitality and Tourism Association.
“Of course, the hotels were more or less penniless straight away,” said Clayton. “They had nothing to come in.”
Then, in the summer of 2020, the first group of 50 traveling nurses came and needed a hotel to stay in.
“And it grew exponentially during the summer and especially in the fall season,” she said. There were about 470 health workers at the hotels in the Longview area.
“It definitely affected our restaurants too,” she said.
However, she said that business travel is now picking up again and the city’s sports tourism business continues to be strong.
“We are very fortunate to live in a city with a wide variety of industries,” said Clayton, noting that a planned new Gap Inc. distribution center in Longview will benefit the hospitality industry as construction begins.
“That can help us weather the storm and lose the nurses,” she said.
Demobilization
UT Health Tyler had about 118 government-funded nurses at its peak, Escandon said. Now it and the other hospitals are working to demobilize the extra staff in a controlled manner.
Some nurses who work regularly at local hospitals left temporarily to also become traveling nurses to partake of the higher wages available through the program.
“We are waiting for you to return,” said Escandon. These nurses will return to their home communities if the situation changes with COVID-19.
She also praised the state’s use of regional advisory boards to coordinate resources for hospitals. Health care support is different from other states, she said.
“I don’t know of any other state that has done something similar, and we still appreciate it,” said Escandon.
