Life on the ward: ‘It’s difficult separating family members from loved ones’
The reality of the pandemic didn’t fully sink in for India Wells until midway through Sydney’s Delta outbreak.
“Within five minutes of each other there were two patients under 20, very sick, put into our most serious bays in the isolation area,” she says.
“I think anyone that was questioning whether this was real … two patients under 18 really struggling to breathe, needing high-level care, on high amounts of oxygen … That was a moment I realised that this is serious.”
Wells has been a registered nurse at St Vincent’s hospital in Sydney for seven years and has worked in the emergency department for six. While she had been prepared for the pandemic, she hadn’t expected to be on the frontline of what was then the largest Covid cluster to hit New South Wales.
“When the pandemic began, our emergency department split into two sections: the green zone, and we classified our isolation zone as the red zone … In July, when the Delta variant started right around the corner in Bondi, that really ramped up our Covid presentations,” Wells says.
Less than two weeks after an airport limousine driver from the eastern suburbs tested positive to Delta on 16 June, cases linked to the cluster had swelled, and the greater Sydney region was locked down.
Then the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, described it as the “scariest time since the pandemic started” and warned the city to prepare for rising case numbers.
Expected to last seven days, the lockdown dragged out until mid-October and more than 500 people lost their lives.
Wells says the experience of Delta was “extremely stressful”. “It was quite difficult separating family members from patients, their loved ones,” she says.
Working in the Covid zone and
the ever-evolving hygiene and sanitary practices to follow have been particularly stressful, she says.
“You’re a little more isolated from the main staff department but we were constantly given education, constantly updated with the forever-changing criteria – even down to which gowns and what masks you have to wear in triage.
“The nurses worked really hard keeping family members updated on the patient’s journey: whether they were confirmed Covid-positive, if they needed to stay in hospital or whether they could go home and isolate.”
Wells says one key difference for health workers this year compared with 2020 was the arrival of vaccines.
They rolled out the vaccination for staff members, allied health, cleaners, everyone involved in patient care,” she says. “I think I was fully vaccinated by April so we had that protection … which gave us that safety.
“We have been fatigued but we’ve got great staff; the cleaners were fabulous during this time – they really held the fort for us.
“We put them through extreme stress and we were so grateful for them [and] the security team for Covid transfers from our isolation zone up to the Covid wards.”
It took “a whole team” to ride the Delta wave, Wells says. “Security would have to block off the hallways and the elevators, then we’d have to clean those areas,” she says.
“So while everyone was stressed, this is ED, this is what we do … we all banded together and I was really proud of our team.”