”I Tried to Make Them Comfortable”: Inside the ICU, with Nurse Rich

This week local ICU nurse Rich and I talked chaos, COVID units, quarantined hallways, altered care, mental burnout, resource depletion, and (somehow) persistence.

Though nursing wasn’t Rich’s first choice, surviving the frontlines of a pandemic has made it his most important one. I get the feeling he doesn’t choose nursing despite all he’s seen, rather he soldiers on because of it.

 

There is little I can add to Rich’s story. There is, however, so much to learn from it.

Thank you to those, specifically, that cared for our most vulnerable patients during the last two years, and always.