Health Care Workers on the Frontlines of the COVID-19 Fight

Health care workers who expose themselves to the risk of the virus are trying to save people’s life, fight against the virus on the frontlines.

There are remarkable women who are both doctors, nurses, mothers and have great achievement in writing stories, being an author. They work hard to fight against the crisis while creating great stories, bring comfort and joy into their stories on Dreame, which is a female reading and writing platform.

They talk about their feelings against the virus in this special period and provide some safety guides.

Let’s take a look at the sharings below from authors who are also health care workers. Read and comment to support them together.

Aura

A Nurse works on the frontline to fight with the crisis in the Philippines.

A smile full of hope that this challenge, the world is facing, will soon be gone forever. As most of our fellow countrymen are staying in their houses with their beloved family, keeping safe, we, the angels of the sickroom are battling the unseen enemy. Unsure of our salvation, unsure of victory. Yet we choose to be in front and fight for the welfare of humanity and the future. I am proud to say that here in Kuwait, we have gradual growth of infection and has zero deaths, so far, as everyone is working with one goal, not to mention government is very keen on implementing the necessary measures in fighting the disease and people are following whatever they command.

Please, to our brothers and sisters all over the world, help frontline fight Novel Corona Virus. Stay at home. This is your very chance to feel the love of your family as well as your precious pets, spend valuable time with each other, utter the powerful prayers together. The virus is big but our God is biggest of all, everything will be fine in His perfect time.

Shana G

A Doctor from Nepal gives some Coronavirus safety guides below.

I hope you’re all well and safe.

Since childhood on our festival called Dashain when we put tika on our forehead and take blessings from our elders, they used to ask what did I want to become in future? I used to reply, ‘a doctor’.

I studied hard and got inside the medical college and throughout the college life I got to experience many good things, volunteering at a school for specially abled children and helping them donating books and medicines, going to the remote areas and providing free health services, voluntary work at Pashupati Nath temple during the festival Teej and Mahashivaratri.

I am now working as an intern doctor, it been a few months since I’ve started working and I would like to share my experience on the pandemic we’ve been facing.

My workplace is located in a recently turned municipality from Village development committee. People from remote places come here for the checkups, and as the world was hit by Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) we were all concerned and started taking precautions by wearing masks, washing our hands more frequently. But soon masks were sold at higher rates and at present there is a severe shortage of the masks and we’ve had to sneak masks out from Operation theatre as we were not provided with any and that was the only place where the masks were available. We are posted in Obs/Gynae dept which has the major flow of the patients and the Out Patient Department would be so full that we didn’t even have a space to breathe, we didn’t have enough chairs, we had to stand and take history, after the corona outbreak the government had passed an order to not have more than 25 people gathering so the guards managed the OPD cards and sent them in number of threes for us to check them that helped us with some space, only a few of the patients wore masks and majority would walk in without it. As front-liners we are the first ones to come in contact with the patients and not provided with personal protective equipment, we’ve been arranging our own, we’ve been reusing the same masks for few days too. I remember an incident when a patient visited us for her regular antenatal check-up she had complained of fever and cough, let alone wearing a mask she wasn’t even covering her face with her hands or elbow when we taught her the ways and advised her to use mask she ignored it as she didn’t take us seriously.

But I’d like to mention the ones also, who carefully listened to us and took the precautions, they were concerned and learnt the steps of handwashing and use of masks properly.

As our country lacks proper facilities, equipment, personal protective equipment, it’s hard for us to contain the virus, the only way to prevent the spread. Thankfully the government took it measures after one case tested positive and closed the schools and colleges, postponed annual exams, board exams, cancelled the flights, sealed the borders, which is highly appreciable. At present we have three positive cases, one cured. As a further measure, the government has announced a lockdown for 7days since yesterday as a result road are empty, restaurants, pubs, offices everything’s closed. Only a few authorized vehicles, ambulance, food trucks, medical professionals, are allowed to step out. All the nonemergency services have been closed down, a few hospitals have also started online OPD services in Viber and WhatsApp for the patient’s convenience.

Our hospital has also set up a fever clinic and many of us have volunteered to work there, we are also working in shifts in the wards to prevent exposure and only emergency OT are conducted.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the health workers, police officers and governments around the world who had been continuously working hard, putting in their best efforts to contain the virus and thank you, everyone, for cooperating with the lockdown.

To all the people out there, what I’d like to say is, it’s not necessary to be a health professional to contribute to control the pandemic, everyone can contribute easily by following some measures:

Stay at home unless absolutely necessary, do not complain about being forced to have stayed home, your immune system may be strong, even if you don’t have symptoms but you still might be carrying the virus which you may transmit it unknowingly, use the time for spending time with your family, read books, learn a language, enhance your cooking skills.

In case of absolutely necessary, if you need to go out, use masks, avoid going into crowds, maintain at least 1-meter distance from others

Hand washing: the most effective method. Wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.

Avoid touching your face.

Avoid handshakes.

Cover your nose and mouth while coughing and sneezing with your elbow or a tissue paper and discard it properly.

If you develop symptoms or come in contact with the infected reach out to the hospital.

Last but not the least it’s all up to the public, we, the health professionals are here to treat you guys but it’s all in your hands to defeat the virus and not get defeated by it. If you can save the world by just staying at home then why not? Together we can overcome this.

So, stay home and stay safe.

During the hard times, the support we share could help humankind go through difficulties. No matter where we are and who we are, we are together.