By Ilana Siyance
An online poll has revealed that half the nurses in New Jersey’s largest healthcare union have been exposed to the coronavirus, and one out of five were infected with COVID-19. As reported by NJ.com, the informal survey also showed that of those nurses who got sick, one in four went back to work before they felt they had fully recovered. A majority of them also said they were told to reuse single-use personal protective equipment such as N95 respirators. As per the survey, close to 30 percent said they wore an N95 that did not fit them, and 63 percent said they brought their own protective equipment to work. Further, the 53 percent of respondents who were exposed to the novel virus said they did not quarantine.
The poll had responses from 1,085 members of HPAE, Health Professionals and Allied Employees working on the front lines in hospitals, rehabs and long-term care facilities in New Jersey during these unprecedented times. The union sent the survey to its 14,000 members to find if the disturbing accounts union leaders have been hearing are true, said HPAE President Debbie White. The respondents answered between April 30 to June 2. “They put their employees at risk. This clearly shows they did,” White said. “These stories taken together that would terrify the rest of society.”
“This whole experience has totally eroded any trust or faith had in the employer,” said one nurse who did not wish to be named for fear of reprisal. . “We want to take care of people, and knowing you don’t have the right equipment to do your job –the stress is unbelievable”. She said that she and her colleagues felt “disposable” during the pandemic.
White stressed that hospitals had no set guidelines rather each followed random practices. “They were locking up supplies, acting like they were running out. They would send our members into COVID rooms without protection. They would tell certain groups – you can be protected and you cannot,” said White. The union is now working to push a bill, entitled S2384/A4129, introduced in the state Legislature. The bill proposed last month, would require hospitals, surgery centers and nursing homes to report on how their employees fared during this pandemic. The state Health Department would be required to post on their website, how many of the nurses tested positive for COVID-19, were admitted to a hospital, and died from the disease.
Cathy Bennett , the president and CEO of New Jersey Hospital Association, the trade group representing 71 acute-care hospitals and nursing homes in the state, conceded that the novel virus exposed some weaknesses in the system but said they will be corrected moving forward. “We know, for example, that the longstanding norms for the level of PPE stockpiles at the federal, state and facility level are not adequate for a pandemic,” Bennett said in an email.
“That is an operational issue that must be addressed at all levels, including the Strategic National Stockpile at the federal level.” “It already is occurring in hospitals, which are going to great lengths to invest in supplies, line up new suppliers in the U.S. and abroad and rebuild their inventories at greater levels,” added Bennett. However, Bennett also defended the hospitals and their frontline employees, pointing out that New Jersey was the second hardest hit in the U.S., following only NY. She said the association succeeded overall in evading “the worst fears – a healthcare system overrun with patients and unable to provide care to them – didn’t materialize in our state.”
