How VA Nurses are Coping With the COVID-19 Pandemic

As summer approached, testing throughout most of the states remained scarce and contact tracing was a struggle at many facilities. It seemed that, even if testing was available, only those at high risk would be tested.

Moreover, quarantine and sick leave for those who were COVID positive remained a concern, as numbers of those exposed increased. It was widely known and reported that staffing levels within the VHA were inadequate prior to the months going into the pandemic; survey respondents wondered how they would handle vacancies and take care of outside patients as part of the Fourth Mission if staff got sick. One COVID-compelled solution (which NOVA has advocated for years) included expedited hiring practices. Timely application and quicker onboarding enabled VA to hire within weeks rather than months. Since March, VA has hired > 20,000 new employees.

Multiplied Multitasking

The crisis, along with potential and actual staff shortages, has meant that many nurses have been doing double and triple duty—at the least. Danielle Newman, MSN, RN, clinical resource nurse, specialty and outpatient clinics, said, “Throughout the COVID crisis, I have been a direct care provider, an educator, a member of the float pool, an infection preventionist, a colleague, a therapist, and part of a support system to many.… As a PPE nurse educator, I visit every floor in the hospital and help educate staff on how to properly don and doff PPE, as well as monitor the doffing area and assist staff through the doffing process. I have also been involved in obtaining nasal swabs on veterans as well as staff in order to isolate and slow the progression of the virus.”

Some nurses were deployed, some redeployed, and some volunteered for the COVID front. James Murphy, BSN, RN, an emergency department nurse, answered the call. “During the first few weeks of the outbreak and with all its uncertainty, I volunteered to be a COVID nurse.… Seeing how the pandemic has changed practice was an experience.”

Peter Russo, MSN, RN, an OR assistant nurse manager, also found new experience. When the pandemic began to take hold, he was reassigned to Urgent Care and then to the Incident Management Team (IMT). “I asked my associate chief nurse, ‘What is the IMT?’ After my first 2 days on this team, my head was spinning with loads of information, trying to understand and grasp my role as the IMT Nursing Clinical Lead.” 

After the third day, his preceptor was redeployed back to the endoscopy department. “I quickly realized my main role as a clinical leader on this team,” Russo says, “was to support and troubleshoot any and all nursing problems, concerns and or questions related to the COVID-19 pandemic among the 3 campuses. One of the more complex challenges was to identify the nursing burn rate of our PPE, especially the N95 masks in all of our COVID units.”

The new experience benefited, him, though. “When changes in policy or procedure happen during the course of an hour, it was one of my responsibilities to notify the nursing staff across the board. I now feel much more confident and competent offering suggestions [about] the many issues that arise.”