'It's bad. It's really bad': Anchorage nurses under pressure as COVID-19 pushes busy hospitals to the brink - Anchorage Daily News

As their colleagues fall ill or quarantine, some nurses here say they are spending more time on patient care with less help, struggling to get tested, and at times overwhelmed by the rigors and emotional strife of treating patients cut off from family due to coronavirus precautions.

All three of the large hospitals in Anchorage say they’re working to make sure patient care doesn’t suffer.

Teanna Hehnlin, a nurse for almost 15 years, has worked with COVID-19 patients at Providence Alaska Medical Center since the pandemic began here in March.

Hehnlin, a 37-year-old from Chugiak, said patients with the virus require more nurses for the same number of patients because of the time it takes to treat them.

What takes a toll on her psyche, she said, is going from caring for dying COVID-19 patients to a community where some people downplay the risks of a virus known to cause lengthy ICU stays, stroke or irreversible lung damage, and suffering for family and friends mourning those who don’t survive.

Even Alaska’s top health officials acknowledge there aren’t enough nurses in the state to staff existing hospital beds, never mind any overflow centers authorities might open if patients max out health care capacity.

Longtime RN Donna Phillips, labor representative for the state nurse union, is familiar with most of the nurses interviewed and supports their contention that Anchorage’s hospitals are being bombarded with patients of all kinds right now and they aren’t keeping up.

But the public also needs to take responsibility to reverse the ongoing COVID-19 case trends threatening to overwhelm the state health care system by wearing masks and social distancing in public, she said, recalling a nurse on a staff meeting call this week who picked up food at an Anchorage restaurant.

Testing nurses for COVID-19 makes sure they aren’t getting sick and also lowers the risk they might infect patients.

“I would definitely feel better if we weren’t so strapped for staffing,” said another nurse who works in critical care and has young children.

“I am as well as others in ICU are burnt out and actively looking for other employment,” another nurse said in an email, expressing frustration over managers ignoring her training recommendations and having unrealistic patient care goals.

Alaska has health care limits that become more critical when needs surge, state health officials acknowledge.

Home-monitoring systems and oxymeters can limit the numbers of people coming to the hospital with COVID-19 by allowing patients to stay home unless their condition worsens, she said.

Hospitals in Anchorage, where the state’s sickest patients often end up, acknowledge they are at times struggling to staff intensive-care beds now, never mind additional beds that might be needed if surging hospitalizations prompt the need to open alternate care centers at Anchorage’s Alaska Airlines Center or the Carlson Center in Fairbanks.

Representatives for the three main hospitals in Anchorage say patient care hasn’t suffered.

“Our staffing ratios are determined by the patient’s needs,” said Shirley Young, a spokeswoman for Alaska Native Medical Center, a nonprofit 173-bed health center that provides medical care for the Alaska Tribal Health System.

At Providence Alaska Medical Center, staffing ratios are similar to what they were a year ago, “though we have provided additional resources on some units when needed related to additional COVID workload,” said Mikal Canfield, a spokesman for the 400-bed hospital that’s part of a nonprofit Catholic network.

“Patients with COVID and patients who could potentially have COVID are provided care in the same units,” Canfield said in an email.

Alaska Regional Hospital, a 250-bed facility operated by national chain HCA Healthcare, is “looking at creative ways to extend the nursing skill set” and considering alternate care models while still ensuring patient safety, spokeswoman Kjerstin Lastufka said in an email?

The ratio on their floor shifted from four patients for every nurse to six patients for every nurse plus one nursing assistant, who can’t administer medications and do other tasks that RNs can, the nurse said.

Another nurse who works with COVID-19 patients described a ratio of one nurse per three patients, partly because it takes so much time to put on and take off PPE each time

Generally, nurses say, more RNs who can sign off on certain high-risk medications and are dedicated to the ICU are needed in Anchorage hospitals, not just assistants, especially given the new pressure of dealing with COVID-19 patients