"Healthcare workers are being hung out to dry," Nurse B from Mount Sinai Systems Morningside told Xinhua.
"Healthcare in the U.S. is really screwed up. Many hospitals like mine are so focused on their profit margins that they keep their wards chronically understaffed, and that's a bigger problem now because COVID treatments are even more labor intensive."
He said that hospitals had not spent enough money to get the PPE needed to properly protect their healthcare workers. "It's wrong and it's dangerous."
The nurse also said he felt it was unconscionable that government officials and hospitals sat on their hands and watched while the virus swept through China and didn't take advantage of that crucial 10-week early warning period to get prepared for when the outbreak inevitably hit the United States.
Nurse C, a female nurse from the Kaiser Permanente system in the Los Angeles area, reported similar problems and shortages. Kaiser is one of the largest U.S. healthcare systems and posts 80 billion U.S. dollars in annual revenues.
Concerned over the lack of credible and concrete information on COVID-19 as to whether it was spread only by droplets or was genuinely airborne, Nurse C and some of other concerned nurses purchased their own masks to wear at work, and some even tried to lighten the mood by wearing attractive, yet effective, designer masks.
They were dismayed when all their masks were immediately confiscated by the management, who told them they didn't want them spooking the patients by wearing masks around them. The management also told the nurses that they didn't have to worry about getting COVID-19 if they didn't work on the designated floor.
【国际英语资讯:Spotlight: Many U.S. healthcare workers face COVID-19 safety challenges】相关文章:
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