Covid-19的压力和创伤影响了所有人，而急诊护理护士的感觉不仅仅是他们的份额。他们在前线和大流行的中心工作，许多人说过去几个月的艰难经历使他们变得更强大，更加致力于护理。
Throughout this historic period, Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth faculty members have tested innovations, graduates have led practice improvements, and students have provided compassionate care at the bedsides of critically ill patients.
护士从业者
Many students seeking Master of Science in Nursing degrees to become nurse practitioners (NPs) – like Roxanne Mana-Ay, BSN, CCRN, and Christopher Falgout, BSN, RN – are already experienced nurses who continued working during the pandemic while taking classes that shifted online.
“We’ve learned that our students and alumni are very resilient, and so are the faculty,” saidLori Hull-Grommesh，DNP，RN，NEA-BC，FAANP，描述了虚拟模拟和其他创新，以确保学生能够满足临床要求和其他计划目标。Hull-Grommesh是Cizik护理学院研究生研究系的助理教授，是急性护理/老年医学NP Track的临时轨道协调员。她与助理教授一起教未来的NPTammy L. Stout，DNP，RN，ACNP-BC;塞思·史蒂芬斯（Seth Stephens），DNP，RN，ACNP-BC，CPHQ;和Tonya Page，DNP，RN，ACNP-BC。
医院领导
CIZIK护理校友学院Betty Gonzales，DNP，RN，ACNP-BC，CCRN，担任本德县堡一家医院的护士从业人员服务主任，该州在2020年3月上旬被诊断出该州的首次记录的Covid-19案件。
冈萨雷斯回忆说：“我们在这里得到了第一位病人，我相信这是3月6日。”“在2020年3月的第一次峰值期间，我们认为这尽可能可怕，但这并不像七月那样糟糕。”
The NPs interviewed throughout the Houston area agreed that the July surge was in some ways worse for them than the larger winter peak because they knew much less in the summer about COVID-19.
冈萨雷斯指出：“关于如何治疗这些患者，没有书籍要走。”
为了帮助使医院的所有人保持最新的指导和发展的最新状态，冈萨雷斯在周五下午组织了一次常规专业会议，将强化主义者，肺科医生，药剂师和其他临床医生汇集在一起，讨论最新的治疗信息并分享他们自己的经验。她说，Cizik护理学院的护理医生计划有助于她信心担任领导职务，并与医生和管理人员合作进行创新。
受到损失
Mana-Aay在重症监护病房（ICU）方面有很多工作经验。大流行开始前不久，她搬进了“翻转池”，这意味着她在整个医院工作了各种类型的急性护理单位。
她在高敏度单位上的工作意味着失去患者并不少见。但是，她指出，随着大流行的开始，由于呼吸衰竭而导致的死亡人数急剧增加。
“我们受过培训可以应对护士的死亡。我们的工作是为患者提供舒适的环境并保护他们作为一个人的尊严。” Mana-ay说。“死亡人数对我们所有人造成了情感上的伤害。”
Mana-ay最困难，最有希望的时刻都涉及绝症患者 - 第一个年轻患者的健康状况迅速和出乎意料地下降，第二名是一个老年患者，他从无反应的状态中唤起了通过视频聊天来见证家庭里程碑。
“Prior to COVID, I knew that the profession was about caring for patients and being an advocate for them, but with COVID, it transcended that principle. With our patients dying without being able to see their family members, the nurses have really taken the initiative in setting up online visits and communicating with families to alleviate their fears and stress,” Mana-Ay said.
“It’s very daunting and heavy, and emotionally you are drained before you even walk into a patient’s room,” Page said, describing the layers of protective clothing and gear required in the ICUs, long ventilator tubes running outside of rooms, and the inability to touch and comfort patients.
Falgout, who works in the cardiovascular (CV) ICU at Houston Methodist Hospital in the Texas Medical Center, has specialized training to operate some of the equipment used for some of the sickest COVID-19 patients, such as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machines.
大多数日子，Falgout像往常一样在CV ICU部门工作。但是，随着常规ICU成为共同单位，他治疗了各种疾病的共同阴性患者。但是像其他所有人一样，他在夏季山峰期间骑自行车穿越了共同的ICU。
“我觉得我们单位很多th大难不死e trauma that the other units experienced. You feel kind of guilty because of that,” Falgout said. He would check his assignment each morning, anxious that he might have to report to a COVID unit.
作为一名经理，冈萨雷斯在大流行期间最艰巨的任务之一是帮助工作人员克服他们可理解和可口的恐惧。在许多情况下，具有个人情况的护士可能会在大流行期间免除他们的工作 - 幼儿或在家中的亲戚，甚至是自己的怀孕 - 每天都会继续出现。
“I felt like I was never at home. They just kept coming and coming through the ER,” Gonzales said. “I’ve been doing this a very long time, and this is the saddest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Mana-ay说，她感谢休斯顿卫理公会提供的精神支持线，当员工感到不知所措时，他们可以打电话给他们。
The good from the bad
所有人都同意，在类似情况下与其他医疗保健专业人员分享经验有帮助，并且大流行增强了个人护士，护理团队和跨专业债券。
在大流行期间必要的技术和教学实践的创新可能会使学生，护士和未来患者受益。得克萨斯州护士从业人员协会政府事务主任艾琳·库萨克（Erin Cusack）也希望有一天能够帮助州议员认识到消除法规障碍的价值，这些监管障碍将扩大NPS提供护理的能力。
In Texas, an NP must have a delegation agreement in place with a physician in order to practice. Traditionally, these agreements have been one-to-one contracts between physicians and NPs. The pandemic, however, called for more flexible and efficient approaches, including broader agreements with hospital systems. However, the 2021 biennial session of the Texas Legislature ended without extension of temporary measure that waived the requirement for these delegation contracts.
While vaccines have enabled nurses to breathe sighs of relief and hope, they recognize that the pandemic is not over. In fact, they all mentioned that the patients they have treated more recently tend to be younger. But with a better understanding of the disease, effective treatments, and more than a year of experience treating patients with COVID-19, they feel a bit more optimistic about outcomes.
“This is a piece of history that I want to be part of,” Gonzales said. “I didn’t do it for my kids to say I was a hero. This is what I do for a living. This is where I should be, and I was honored to do this.”
