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One Morning as an ICU Nurse on a Covid-19 Unit
Being a nurse is my calling — all parts of it at all times
4 a.m. — I haven’t even tried to go to sleep tonight. Why? Fear I guess, fear of being late specifically. I have to leave my house at 5:15 a.m. in order to get to work on time. I have to clock in by 6:45. I don’t need over an hour to drive the 35 miles to work but I still need to get there early. There are a few extra procedural steps these days between arriving at work and beginning to care for patients. For now, I’m eating a bowl of oatmeal, something to hold me and the baby I’m carrying over until I get a second breakfast from the cafeteria around 9 once I’m at work. There’s always the chance that something will come up and I’ll miss the cafeteria hours, so going in with an empty stomach is a risky game.
6 a.m. — After parking, I’ll walk across a bridge that goes over a major street in downtown Atlanta. I like walking across the bridge. I practice taking deep breaths; these are my last few moments of peace before the inevitable chaos ensues.
It takes about seven minutes to arrive at the threshold of my hospital, but before I can enter they will screen me for symptoms of a respiratory infection and check my temperature. So long as it’s less than 100 degrees Fahrenheit, a sticker with today’s date will be placed on…
