“Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.” This quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt is true of health workers the world over. Some health workers of Nigerian descent in the frontline of the COVID-19 battle in the UK share their fears and challenges with Dorcas Egede.
IN times of war, combatant soldiers are the first on the frontline, fighting and putting their lives on the line to defend and protect their people and territory. In the same vein, in times of epidemic, or pandemic like the Coronavirus, which in itself is a war (of the elements) against the human race; doctors, nurses and allied health workers are the first in line, battling to rescue and preserve humanity. They go about their responsibilities of taking care of people who have been infected on a daily basis. They do not do these without fears of being infected or infecting their loved ones back home, but because saving lives is their passion and calling and they must rise up to the challenge.
It is for this reason that Omolara Esan, a UK-based nurse, considers her job “a very dangerous one,” even as she admits that the major risk health workers are daily faced with today is the “Covid-19 infection risk.”
Esan’s greatest fear, as the pandemic persists, is waking up every morning and knowing that the battle is still raging?
Nevertheless, she says, “I have no fears because greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. If there’s going to be any problem, God will block the way. So, I don’t have any fears.”
Asked if the hospital she works is affected by the pervading dearth of protective gears for health workers, Esan said, “Not really.”
She revealed that she had not been to work since Thursday penultimate week because the management of the hospital where she works suddenly decided that they would no longer provide scrubs for them to wear at work.
“I have been working directly with a hospital, and I prefer to wear my scrub when I get there and take it off after work, so that it will be washed in the hospital and I’ll put on my uniform. Now, the hospital decided that they won’t give us scrubs anymore. They said we have to wear mufti from home, wear and work in our uniform when we get to the hospital, then remove our uniforms after work and wear the mufti back home. I didn’t agree to that. Fortunately, I work with an agency. I have since stopped going to work and the agency is already looking for another place to send me.”
When asked if she has, at any time in her years of nursing, been faced with a major outbreak, Esan said, “In my 40 years of nursing, I have had to do with an emergency like this (only once), and that was a lousy cholera outbreak in 1979/80. I was a student nurse in Ogun State at the time.”
On how she protects herself as she commutes to work or other important places, Esan said, “I drink the blood of Jesus by faith and I know that if there is any evil that’s going to happen, God will not allow me to be there. Apart from this, I use nose masks, gloves, aprons.”
She also does not agree that the pandemic has put her under any kind of pressure, although she confesses that the resultant separation of parents and children at this time can be heartbreaking.
“The only thing that breaks my heart is when I see a family suffering. When children lose their parents within a few minutes; these children don’t have access to their parents or their corpses for that matter. If those parents had been involved in an accident, the children would be able to see their corpses to bury; but in the case of Corona virus, there is no such thing. This is what really breaks my heart.”
Until this past week, Bridget Onabanjo, another UK-based nurse says she never had to deal directly with patients who test positive to the virus, as they were referred to bigger hospitals around. But as more people get infected, there has been need for more facilities to accommodate patients, hence more hospitals, including hers, are being deployed as treatment centres.
When the hospital where she works was selected, Onabanjo confessed that she panicked. “Where I work, we had been sending some patients in critical condition to bigger hospitals, but beginning from yesterday, it was decided that positive patients will be brought to our hospital. Even though I’m currently off duty, the moment I heard that information, I panicked and wondered how I would face the situation.
“Even my children worried about me working directly with positive patients and that kind of put fear in me. But I believe God that taking necessary precaution as we have been shown, I will be safe. We have been taught how to dress up in the hospital, nurse positive patients and how to take off our clothes when we are done.”
Even though health workers may take every precaution to stay safe, Onabanjo says “I worry for their families when they return home, because you never know. What if any of them takes it home and infects any member of their family?
“Again, you never know. While working, there may be carelessness in between – probably you happen to put your hand in your mouth, nose or other sensitive parts of your body, in the course of taking care of the patients, and before you know it, you’re infected.
“Moreover, when we were being trained, we were told that the mask provided can be used for up to four hours, which I objected to. I told them that even in my country where I practiced nursing for 35 years, we used the mask to attend to a patient, disposed it and took a new one when we wanted to attend to another patient. I told them that isn’t going to happen for me. This is also one of the risks.”
On how dangerous she considers the assignment, Onabanjo said, “When they said a nursing home in Devon should admit corona virus patients, their response was that admitting them is like when you employ death into the home. It’s a high risk assignment really. We are just like the Good Samaritan, helping out a wounded person, not minding if there will be consequences. Anyone can be affected. Nurses, doctors and other caregivers have died in the process of taking care of Covid-19 patients. We just take it as part of our cross. We cannot reject it. You see that even those who had retired returned to come and help out. The application sent out requested for 250,000 people and those who showed up were more than that number. This shows that the work we do is humanitarian in nature.”
Are Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) sufficiently provided for? “Yes, they provided PPE, taught us how to put it on and off. In my hospital now, they closed the main gate and created another gate, and created a portal for hospital staff, such that when you come from your home to the hospital, the portal is where you go and take off the clothes you wore from home and put on the PPE. There is also a way you go out once you’re done with work and going out that way means you’ve closed for the day. There’s also provision for where to shower before you dress up and go home.” Onabanjo said.
What personal protective steps do you take on your own?
“Some people put on masks when they are going out, but I don’t really believe in putting on masks wherever you go, so what I do is avoid going close to people or any gathering. When I’m on the bus, I try not to touch the poles. Immediately I get home, I take off my jacket, which covers other clothing I have on, and put it out to air. Thank God there’s a bit of sunlight these days, so I just put the jacket under the sun till sunset. I make sure to wash my hands frequently and shower every time I get home from work. I also drink a lot of alkaline now (lime, lemon in water) and eat loads and loads of vegetables.”
Have you had to deal with any kind of outbreak in your career? What was it like?
“I believe that if God could save us in Nigeria where we haven’t got most of the equipment that are available in advanced countries, then he can save us now. No, we haven’t had an outbreak that affected the whole world. We have had cholera outbreaks in Nigeria, I have also worked with TB patients.”
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