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Guest Column - Kristi Cross
October 1, 2021
First, thank you all for your patience with me. As I completed this edition of The Windmill, I had the sudden realization that I missed an entire month of Rotary meetings. While I'm always up for a good challenge, I grossly underestimated what it meant to be a statewide clinical leader for a home health agency during a pandemic.
These are incredibly difficult times and health care professionals are really really REALLY tired. While I'm not on the frontlines these days, I do support my frontline team and I'm often their sounding board for debriefing, support, and comfort. As an empath, I carry the weight of their stress and I've been trying desperately to anchor myself in gratitude and love.
Interestingly, we haven't had a lot of home health Covid patients, but what we have seen is a significant increase in patients who didn't seek timely care for their chronic conditions. We are seeing increasingly medically and behaviorally complex patients. More than I've seen in my nearly decade long career in home health. Piled onto this complexity is a serious staffing shortage across all health care sectors. Patients that need a higher level of care, like a nursing home, simply cannot get into those higher levels of care. What results is a cycle of emergent care, hospitalization, home health, and so on.
I just recently became certified as a Fit Tester. Which means, I'm going around the state fitting the home health staff with N95 respirators. The fit testing takes at least 20 minutes and is similar to a claustrophobia inducing torture. While they are wearing the N95, I place a hood over their head and have them do a series of exercises while spraying a bitter aerosol into the hood. To be a Fit Tester, I had to also be fit tested. Now keep in mind, I've been an RN for nearly 18 years, so I've been fit tested several times in my career (Swine Flu, H1N1, etc). But it's been over a decade since I wore an N95. Talk about a serious reality check and reminder of what the frontline health care professionals are having to wear for entire shifts! It made me think: if I'm *this* tired, *this* stressed, *this* emotional… how are others coping? I'm wondering if they are, indeed, coping.
Despite all this, there are silver linings, triumphs, successes, effective collaboration, wins, relationship building, growth, pride, and good quality care happening.
Remember to be kind. To listen. To be patient. To be grateful. (Hmm... pretty similar to those Rotarian responses to the right… am I right?). OH... and don't delay your medical care and take care of your mental health!
Author: Kristi Cross (Club Member & Windmill Editor)
Windmill
Guest Column - Kristi Cross
October 1, 2021First, thank you all for your patience with me. As I completed this edition of The Windmill, I had the sudden realization that I missed an entire month of Rotary meetings. While I'm always up for a good challenge, I grossly underestimated what it meant to be a statewide clinical leader for a home health agency during a pandemic.
These are incredibly difficult times and health care professionals are really really REALLY tired. While I'm not on the frontlines these days, I do support my frontline team and I'm often their sounding board for debriefing, support, and comfort. As an empath, I carry the weight of their stress and I've been trying desperately to anchor myself in gratitude and love.
Interestingly, we haven't had a lot of home health Covid patients, but what we have seen is a significant increase in patients who didn't seek timely care for their chronic conditions. We are seeing increasingly medically and behaviorally complex patients. More than I've seen in my nearly decade long career in home health. Piled onto this complexity is a serious staffing shortage across all health care sectors. Patients that need a higher level of care, like a nursing home, simply cannot get into those higher levels of care. What results is a cycle of emergent care, hospitalization, home health, and so on.
I just recently became certified as a Fit Tester. Which means, I'm going around the state fitting the home health staff with N95 respirators. The fit testing takes at least 20 minutes and is similar to a claustrophobia inducing torture. While they are wearing the N95, I place a hood over their head and have them do a series of exercises while spraying a bitter aerosol into the hood. To be a Fit Tester, I had to also be fit tested. Now keep in mind, I've been an RN for nearly 18 years, so I've been fit tested several times in my career (Swine Flu, H1N1, etc). But it's been over a decade since I wore an N95. Talk about a serious reality check and reminder of what the frontline health care professionals are having to wear for entire shifts! It made me think: if I'm *this* tired, *this* stressed, *this* emotional… how are others coping? I'm wondering if they are, indeed, coping.
Despite all this, there are silver linings, triumphs, successes, effective collaboration, wins, relationship building, growth, pride, and good quality care happening.
Remember to be kind. To listen. To be patient. To be grateful. (Hmm... pretty similar to those Rotarian responses to the right… am I right?). OH... and don't delay your medical care and take care of your mental health!
Author: Kristi Cross (Club Member & Windmill Editor)
Windmill