- Title: "I cry in the car": pandemic takes emotional toll on ICU nurse manager
- Date: 14th December 2020
- Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 14, 2020) (REUTERS) MARTHA NAVARRO ICU NURSE MANAGER AT THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY USC MEDICAL CENTER WEARING FULL PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (PPE) INSIDE AN ICU COVID-19 UNIT TALKING TO A PATIENT SAYING (Spanish) "Do you want them to take this off? look" VIEW OF A COVID-19 PATIENT'S HAND VITAL SIGNS MACHINE INSIDE A COVID-19 UNIT MARTHA NAVARRO ICU NURSE MANAGER AT THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY USC MEDICAL CENTER TALKING TO COVID-19 PATIENT SAYING (Spanish) "That's the reason why lady, try get comfortable, relax, do you want to watch television?" (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARTHA NAVARRO, ICU NURSE MANAGER LOS ANGELES COUNTY USC MEDICAL CENTER, SAYING: "Good days where you come in, you know, things are going okay, no patients die on my shift. But when they do, it's extremely difficult because a lot of times, we are human beings and we can take that personal, you know, not necessarily personal, but we feel like, where did we go wrong? And sometimes you take those situations home and it's difficult when you don't have somebody to talk to about what's going on, and you hold on to that." VIEW OF A TUBE CONNECTED TO A COVID-19 PATIENT MARTHA NAVARRO ICU NURSE MANAGER AT THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY USC MEDICAL CENTER TALKING TO COVID-19 PATIENT IN SPANISH (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MARTHA NAVARRO, ICU NURSE MANAGER LOS ANGELES COUNTY USC MEDICAL CENTER, SAYING: "I cry, there are times when I cry in the car. I'm sorry. Having to see my family, explaining to them why maybe I am not emotionally ready or prepared to be sharing a dinner with them, or why I am not there with them because I have to stay here long hours. They say they understand, but in reality when a 16-year-old needs his mother and she's not there, it's difficult, very difficult." VARIOUS OF MARTHA NAVARRO PUTTING ON PPE WITH THE HELP OF A NURSE MARTHA NAVARRO ENTERING A ROOM OF COVID-19 PATIENT (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARTHA NAVARRO, ICU NURSE MANAGER LOS ANGELES COUNTY USC MEDICAL CENTER, SAYING: "They work very, very hard and seeing them come in day in and day out. My responsibility, I think that my responsibility is to assure that my staff is safe, not only for safety reasons, but we are a family." MARTHA NAVARRO APPLYING HAND SANITIZER AND JOINING A GROUP OF NURSES (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARTHA NAVARRO, ICU NURSE MANAGER LOS ANGELES COUNTY USC MEDICAL CENTER, SAYING: "Seeing them get sick, you know, seeing them calling and telling me that they're sick because they've either been exposed, they've been, they actually have come in contact with the virus, that is the toughest thing, because I don't know how they will recover. And you know, how long we're going to be as it is, we're very short staffed. We're working on skeleton crew and my staff is getting exhausted." PART OF COVID-19 PATIENT SEEN THROUGH A WINDOW IN ICU UNIT "DOPLET+CONTACT PRECAUTIONS" SIGN ON A DOOR OF COVID-19 ROOM VIEW OF A TUBE MEDICAL TEAM EVALUATING COVID-19 PATIENT THROUGH A WINDOW AND MARTHA NAVARRO TALKING ON THE PHONE IN NURSE'S STATION (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARTHA NAVARRO, ICU NURSE MANAGER LOS ANGELES COUNTY USC MEDICAL CENTER, SAYING: "The most difficult thing for me is when you have to turn the families away. Families are very important and essential for the healing of the patients and when they cannot see their loved ones, and I have to be the one that says, I'm sorry, you can't come to see your loved one, that makes it very, very difficult for me." VARIOUS OF NURSE WORKING INSIDE A COVID-19 ROOM SEEN THROUGH AS GLASS DOOR VARIOUS OF MARTHA NAVARRO AND MEDICAL STAFF EVALUATING A PATIENT OUTSIDE THE ROOM VIEW OF A TUBE CONNECTED TO A COVID-19 PATIENT (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARTHA NAVARRO, ICU NURSE MANAGER LOS ANGELES COUNTY USC MEDICAL CENTER, SAYING: "But yes, there are days that you end up going home feeling like you've been defeated. But then I get up in the morning again, I go to my family, try to give them the best of me, which sometimes it's not really possible, and then turn around and come back to work for another day." VARIOUS OF MARTHA NAVARRO WALKING AND ENTERING INPATIENT TOWER AT LOS ANGELES COUNTY USC MEDICAL CENTER MARTHA NAVARRO WALKING WITH A FELLOW NURSE INTO THE SURGICAL ICU UNIT (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARTHA NAVARRO, ICU NURSE MANAGER AT LOS ANGELES COUNTY USC MEDICAL CENTER, SAYING: "My Christmas wish is that we go back to some kind of normality where people get the vaccination, that we're able to have family reunions. I think that's one of the biggest, biggest problems that we're facing, that we cannot see our loved ones." MARTHA NAVARRO TALKING WITH NURSE'S IN NURSE'S STATION "ICU NURSE" BADGE IN MARTHA NAVARRO'S UNIFORM MARTHA NAVARRO TALKING WITH A DOCTOR (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MARTHA NAVARRO, ICU NURSE MANAGER AT LOS ANGELES COUNTY USC MEDICAL CENTER, SAYING: "Nursing is definitely not a profession; it's a passion. A passion to help people, to serve patients when they need it. To see the recovery and progress of that disease that they suffer." MARTHA NAVARRO AND REBECCA SANDOVAL CLINICAL NURSE DIRECTOR AT LOS ANGELES COUNTY USC MEDICAL CENTER WALKING AROUND OUTSIDE PATIENT ROOMS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MARTHA NAVARRO, ICU NURSE MANAGER AT LOS ANGELES COUNTY USC MEDICAL CENTER, SAYING: "It has been very difficult in the emotional sense. In the first place, having to tell families they cannot enter to visit their family, their loved ones, that perhaps they are dying or that they are very ill and that we have to talk about what it is next, what are the next steps." MORE OF MARTHA NAVARRO TALKING WITH NURSES (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MARTHA NAVARRO, ICU NURSE MANAGER AT LOS ANGELES COUNTY USC MEDICAL CENTER, SAYING: "When I see my patients that they recover to a level that, they can function, that they can go back to their families and be productive, and go back to work, or that they are with their families recovering. That is the most satisfaction I get, when my patients can go home." MORE OF MARTHA NAVARRO TALKING WITH NURSES IN NURSE'S STATION (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MARTHA NAVARRO, ICU NURSE MANAGER AT LOS ANGELES COUNTY USC MEDICAL CENTER, SAYING: "My Christmas wish is that everything returns, maybe not so quickly, but at least progress to a normalcy of what we knew in the past. The family reunions, the gatherings here between colleagues to share a lunch together. Just being together, talking to each other without worrying about having to keep distance between you and the person you are talking to." MARTHA NAVARRO WALKING OUT OF CARDIOTHORACIC ICU UNIT
- Embargoed: 28th December 2020 12:47
- Keywords: COVID-19 California ICU COVID unit ICU nurse LAC USC Medical Center Los Angeles Los Angeles County USC Medical Center Martha Navarro hospital nurse nurse manager
- Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
- City: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Health/Medicine,United States,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA001D9059ON
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Martha Navarro started her career in nursing 29 years ago. She says the day she decided to become a nurse, she was caring for her ill father and felt it was her calling. Her job is not a profession; it's a passion.
"A passion to help people, to serve patients when they need it. To see the recovery and progress of that disease that they suffer," Navarro told Reuters.
Navarro is 59 years old and has a 16-year-old son. She has steadily worked her way up to become an ICU Nurse Manager at Los Angeles County USC Medical Center.
The coronavirus pandemic is one of the most challenging times Navarro has ever worked in, and it's taking a toll on her team.
"Seeing them calling and telling me that they're sick because they either been exposed, they've been, they actually have come in contact with the virus, that is the toughest thing, because I don't know how they will recover," she said. "As it is, we're very short staffed. We're working on a skeleton crew and my staff is getting exhausted."
The hardest part is going home after a tough day at work.
"I cry, there are times when I cry in the car. I'm sorry. Having to see my family, explaining to them why maybe I am not emotionally ready or prepared to be sharing a dinner with them, or why I am not there with them because I have to stay here long hours," she said. "They say they understand, but in reality when a 16-year-old needs his mother and she's not there, it is very difficult."
Navarro says she's hopeful she'll be one of the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, as her hospital is one of the sites chosen to distribute the treatment. She says the benefit outweighs the risk and is willing to take the vaccine to protect her family and her community.
With Christmas just two weeks away, Navarro says her only wish is to have "some kind of normality" and go back to having family reunions.
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