For paramedic, it’s a time of changing practices
Nic Hume, 37
• Paramedic based in Victoria • In job 8 years • Partner Anna Stefek, 30, paramedic
Every time paramedic Nic Hume puts on his mask and gets out of his ambulance, he has to assume that the patient he is helping is infected with COVID-19.
For every call, he has to wear a mask, a face shield and gloves, regardless of whether there are any COVID concerns, he says.
“There’s been so much change in the way we handle everything in the last few months,” Hume says. “Everything has slowed down and become very detailoriented, especially around personal protective equipment.”
Each work day, Hume wakes before dawn and drives to Victoria from Sooke to start work by 6 a.m. For the next 12 hours, he doesn’t know when, or where he’ll go — just like in his former job as a newspaper photographer.
In the early days, it was stressful because there was so little known globally about the virus, he says.
The first suspected COVID-19 call was “unnerving.” Since then, he’s changed many practices. Work clothes stay at work and he receives a fresh uniform daily.
A self-described “nerd,” Hume says he was studying the disease early on, and by late February or early March, he had already said goodbye for now to his 96-year-old dad, columnist Jim Hume.
“There’s a very real chance I won’t see him until mid-summer, and at the age of 96, a lot can happen in those months. He’s in great shape. He still writes his blog every week … but.”
Nic Hume, who lives in Sooke with his partner, who is also a paramedic, says it’s never crossed their minds not to go into work because of the risk of infection.
“This is what we do. … This is a particularly unprecedented event in our lifetime, but this is what we signed up for.”
Having said that, the shifts under the shadow of COVID-19 seem longer and harder. Twelve hours in personal protective equipment — a mask, face shield and gloves — and the strict regimen of putting it on and taking it off is exhausting, he says.
“I feel significantly more tired now than I would have a few months ago, and I personally attribute that to being constantly vigilant about cross-contamination, being constantly vigilant about personal protective equipment.”
If there’s a bright side to the pandemic, it’s seeing people rise in the face of adversity and show kindness — food delivered to the front lines, drive-by cheers and drumming at the hospital, chalk art thanking all those in health care.
“It’s humbling.”