LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – “Defeated. You feel defeated.”
Rose Pierce works as an ICU nurse at Sparrow Hospital, where she’s been for the last 6 years.
She says this pandemic has really taken a toll.
“You feel tired. It’s hard to come to work .”
Pierce says the main reason she feels overwhelmed is that some departments are understaffed.
“We are expected to do more with less, and to do more jobs than we should be required to do, and it takes away from what’s truly important and that’s taking care of the patient and making sure they’re number one.”
Pierce is not alone.
“I’m feeling tired. I’m feeling tired. That’s the best way to put it.”
Anthony Huynh started a few months before the pandemic began and never imagined it would be this way.
“Nursing shortage is related to nurses not wanting to work in the conditions that hospitals have created with this pandemic, and also the pandemic has created a lot of people who have been bedside nurses to feel a lot of mental burnout and wanting to leave the bedside itself.”
Both Pierce and Huynh are part of the Michigan Nurses Association.
They say many nurses have the same concern–they want hospitals to have the right amount of staff
Sparrow says it recognizes nurses need help, which is why they’ve got a career fair coming up in two weeks.
“Hopefully it’ll be a one-stop-shop. We’re really looking at a lot of different roles,” said Amy Brown Chief Nursing Officer at Sparrow.
But with people being burned out and leaving the profession, both Pierce and Huynh know it could take months to get the relief they need.
