Nursing homes and the battle they have with COVID
Nursing homes have been affected by COVID 19 and the overall pandemic immensely. When it comes to COVID and the effect it has had on many businesses and other establishments, no one takes more precautions for it than nursing homes. Day in and day out they have to protect their residents from contracting the virus. After all, the virus has proven to be especially effective toward the older demographic.
Over the past few months nursing homes have had to change the way they take care of their homes and residents. It could be limiting contact with other people, sanitizing the home more, or just wearing masks and having residents checked on around the clock. I had the pleasure of interviewing two staff members at Copiah Living Center. This nursing home is a much smaller home with around fifty beds for residents.
Erica Weeks is the Director of Nursing at Copiah Living Center and gave some insight on the matter. She said, “In the beginning the staff, residents, and family members were anxious and fearful of COVID; was personally fearful of losing staff if we were to get a positive resident or employee and then not have enough staff to care for residents. The fear and anxiety had me on edge for months. I had a container with about twenty pairs of scrubs, undergarments, shampoo, conditioner, etc in the trunk of my car at all times, along with an air mattress, blanket, sheets, and pillow in case I lost staff and had to stay at the building 24/7 to care for the residents.”
The staff held strong and have not lost the first employee due to COVID in the building. There is no doubt that the majority of the residents will survive and they will weather this storm just like any other but, the question remains on how long are we willing to sacrifice the mental wellbeing of our residents in order to “keep them safe”?
These are some of the drastic measures that most nursing homes will go through during this time. Family members also remain scared that their loved one will get COVID and die due to underlying health issues. Families are anxious because they were locked out of the facility in early March and have not been allowed back in. There are a lot of “what ifs” and fear of the unknown in general.
CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) is the governing body for nursing homes in the United States. In early March, CMS mandated that nursing homes close the doors to all visitors and non-essential staff in an effort to protect the residents from COVID. CMS wrote policies and changed them constantly, sometimes up to twice a day. Residents are the ones they are trying to protect at all costs. Most nursing home healthcare workers agreed that keeping out visitors would help stop COVID from getting in the building.
Weeks has said she no longer believes that, and she has watched residents decline since March. She watched residents become depressed at not seeing their families and have seen families cry over FaceTime and during window visits because they can’t hug the residents and they crave human touch and companionship. Some residents cry and are confused because they don’t understand Covid and why their families have abandoned them.
Six months may not seem that long to most people but for someone who is elderly, has dementia, or is terminal could be a death sentence without family at their side. Many families report this has been a terrible time because of separation from their loved ones. Copiah Living Center made it until the end of August without having a positive resident. They were one of the last three nursing homes in the state to have Covid infiltrate the building. It started with two positive employees and has spread like wildfire since then. They have currently had twenty six positive residents, four positive employees and 1 resident death due to COVID. The defeat the virus brought them has made the staff and families feel the fear and sadness of it.
Angela Letchworth is a Staffing Coordinator at Copiah Living Center and she gave great details as well on the pandemic and the effect it has had on their home. She says, “The staff has to deal with irate family members who can’t understand why things are done the way they are. They constantly hear they will have their bosses called because they are following government guidelines. Rarely a thank you for your sacrifices is heard.” Some staff members leave to go to facilities with higher pay rates due to having Covid residents and being a rural nursing home such as Copiah. The pay at Copiah is lower than bigger city nursing homes prior to COVID. So with “COVID” pay, it’s a real struggle to maintain staff needed with such a competition at other agencies and facilities trying to meet their staffing needs and offering more money.
Nursing homes whether they are rural or urban have dealt with Covid these past few months and it has been a real challenge for them especially since it is a nursing home and they seem to have caught Covid more than other businesses. Covid has affected many places and has left a lasting impression on society and the world.
