My Experience Working at a Hospital During COVID

I would like to share the experience I had working at a COVID hospital for the past couple of weeks.  This is not a political treatise or in any way an expert opinion, but it certainly is a big deal during this time and I feel like I would be remiss if I didn’t share it.  Let me say, everything from here on out is in my opinion.

Hospitals Have this Handled

For employees and associates, there is a set procedure entering the hospital.  The door is manned by hospital employees who are taking temperatures and distributing a face mask if you don’t have one.  If you’ve left the building for a couple of hours and are returning with an ID badge, mask and have had your temp taken within two hours, you give the employee at the door a thumbs up and immediately enter.

Employees are friendly, professional and calm.  Staff from housekeeping all the way up to the COO and CEO haven been approachable and visible.  Even inside masks, I see a smile and a hello.

The halls are mainly empty of patients (I have literally seen two actual patients in two weeks).  COVID patients are isolated in the ICU and a special ward where they are treated or ruled out as infected.

Hospitals in the West are Pretty Empty

By design, hospitals kept their census low in order to accommodate a rush of pandemic patients.  Thank goodness that has not happened here and hopefully will not.  I am sharing this statement based on information gleaned from customers and co-workers throughout the entire region.

Hospitals are Clean

Obviously, this is a huge generalization, but as a lifelong health-care employee, I have always been pretty dismayed about the lack of cleanliness and upkeep of hospitals.  Now they have had incentive and time to step up their game and I don’t feel filthy by the end of the day like I normally do after working in a hospital.

Here is a pic of the team I worked with.  You can see we worked in masks and gloves on our equipment.  Our workspace was the biomedical engineering shop located in the basement and equipment was brought to us.

A little more about this special team. This was the first onsite team our company sent out and the first team this hospital hosted since the advent of the COVID nonsense. These brave professionals kept everything calm and orderly and serviced our customers the way they expected.

On the other hand, the customer had everything under control with a great system and good communication. It was a really good couple of weeks working together.

All Workers are Heroes

The media has really campaigned to treat healthcare workers as heroes and I certainly do not argue that.  But, I am here to say everyone who goes to work day in and day out and faces fear and uncertainty in order to feed their families and pay their bills is a hero.  People who are taking care of their families and staying in love and peace are heroes.  As a home-based employee it is very easy for me to get my job done without facing anyone for days.  I have the utmost respect for those who don’t have that luxury and I send my blessings and thanks.

Sporting my Work ‘Do

Getting out to exercise at 5 a.m. was super important to my sanity during this project, but since I had to get on the road so early, for a 7 a.m. start, I didn’t have much time to get ready in the morning.  I know every busy person (especially those with kids) know how to cut corners in the morning, but here was my big secret:  My faux pony!  I bought one of these last year from Amazon when I had highlighted hair.  I got SO many compliments on it that I bought another one this year for my darker hair.  After showering, I just blew my hair dry for a few minutes, tied it back in a pony and then applied this faux on top.  I am happy with the look and it’s gotten me through a couple of weeks of what would be very bad hair days otherwise.

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What I’m Eating

On another note, I have always been a person to take my lunch to work versus buying out.  I can better control my diet and I don’t gasp at paying $12 for ½ cheese sandwich.  I know, I’m old fashioned and cheap.  On my low-fodmap eating plan (which has pretty much gone out the window, BTW), I can have arugula and luckily I love it and it holds up well in salads which are premade the night before to take to work the next day.  Here I’m sharing this delish beauty.

Orzo Arugula Salad for One

• 1 ½ tsp avocado oil
• 1 ½ tsp red wine vinegar
• 1 ½ tsp lemon juice
• Salt, pepper and thyme to taste
• ¼ c dry orzo, cooked according to package directions
• 6-8 grape tomatoes, halved
• ¼ cup Kalamata olives
• 1 Tbs sliced green onion tops
• 2 -3 cups arugula

Toss all ingredients together and chill 1 – 2 hours. I needed to make mine the night before and it was not soggy and held up fine.

I’ll be back working from home for the rest of the week, so no more rushing to get up or making lunches the night before. Nice to have my old routine back, but it was great working with people again!