The emails from Governor Cuomo began to roll in almost daily by early March, and the call for nurses to come and support hospitals in New York at the epicenter of the pandemic was ringing loudly in conversations online and in healthcare centers all around the city and the country nonstop. As healthcare workers started to contract COVID, reports of hospitals running out of beds and ventilators began to loop on the news, and the scream of sirens wailed through the city all day and all night, recruiters began to reach out to anyone who had ever applied for a temporary job through their company offering an opportunity to support New York City healthcare workers who could no longer handle the weight of the pandemic alone.
Nobody considers themselves a hero when you are doing the job you signed up to do, but the healthcare workers (nurses, respiratory therapists, CRNAs, doctors, physical therapists, occupational therapists, CNAs and more) hired to help New York save lives from a disease with no mercy became admirable from those outside looking in. The advertisements for nursing positions included opportunities to make $5-10,000 a week plus free housing. Every recruiter was offering something different to attract as many nurses as possible and fill the positions as quickly as possible.
The chaos that ensued as hundreds of nurses descended onto the city was like no one had seen before. Many of the travel nurses did not know which hospital they would be working at and had booked stays at the only few hotels that remained open as things had quickly shut down days before they arrived. The orientation process, on boarding process, and first few days of the assignment were beyond chaotic. As the days went by the travelers and staff began to talk about what life had looked like weeks ago even though things still seemed out of control in late March and early April.
I was one of the few travel nurses living in New York City, so I knew that what we walked into was a lot milder than what these nurses had lived through weeks before. When I started at a local hospital there was still PPE, we were changing our N95s daily, and the staff who had been struck by COVID and survived were slowly trickling back into work. It only took a few weeks before there were at times more nurses than there were patients and the clearing of the hospital which was necessary at that time suddenly felt like a premature decision, but we all knew that was not true. All elective surgeries were still on hold and there were very few patients coming in with complaints of heart attacks, strokes, or normal ED visits that would fill up beds quickly any other time.
The question began to be asked, “What happened to all of the COVID patients?” And the only answer was, “By the time the travel nurses arrived, most of the patients admitted for COVID had already died.” Yes, there were still COVID patients in the ICU, on the medical surgical floors, and testing positive in the ED, but the high influx of admissions had quickly declined to little to none as the disease had swept in and wiped out thousands of New Yorkers quickly and without any mercy.
Many of the travel nurses were on short four to six week contracts and left as things were beginning to die down, but the eight to thirteen week contract nurses suddenly felt as if they were no longer needed and their job security had suddenly went from high need to no need. Every hospital approached this situation differently offering time off to staff employees who were burned out and needed the mental break, while a few began to cancel contracts of nurses who had received late offers or were originally offered extensions.
New York City hospitals are hanging at a record low census with lower admissions, a decreased volume of surgeries, and less emergencies than most have ever seen for this time of the year. As the hospital’s staff began to resume normal job functions, many are dealing with emotions that come from enduring trauma and grief. Sometimes these emotions are targeted at the travel nurses who came in to help, but now are suddenly taking up the shifts that the staff would normally cover. Many of the travelers who thought they would be in New York City for months to come are now packing up to head home to places that had low COVID cases in March and April, but are now at the epicenter of an avoidable flare up due to misinformation, ignorance, and pure denial.
New York City had the first day of no COVID deaths on July 11th and suddenly it felt like the entire city let out a breath that it had been holding in since we peaked back in mid-April. The world has changed and we know that things will not be the same for many years to come. We have so much healing to do as a city, a community, a nation, and as a profession that endured a traumatizing situation that felt like it was going to last forever. Sending love to all of the amazing travelers I met from across the country. May the rest of 2020 bring you peace, joy and love for the sacrifice you made and the work you did in the city I call home.