NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — As more hospital ICU beds across Middle Tennessee are filled with COVID-19 patients, health care workers are looking to each other for help making sure everyone gets care.
At St. Thomas West, nurse Katherine Zambardi said it's not uncommon to see doctors helping nurses out with their duties or vice versa.
"If that's some time a doctor grabbing a tray out of a patient's room because they know our nurses need some extra hands, then they've done that," said Zambardi. "Our PCTs helping our nurses as much as they can. Our nurses doing as much as they can to communicate well with the doctors."
By Zambardi's account, the ICU capacity in the hospital where she works, St. Thomas West. directly affect the amount of spread in the community.
When the COVID-19 count is high, there are more people in the ICU and more staff have to be involved.
"I think that our nurses and our physicians really truly care about our patients," said Zambardi. "If they know that they're needed elsewhere, I can see all of them stepping up to that and being utilized in those areas."
Even though they're called to help, the stress of an ongoing pandemic is felt by the medical staff in hospitals.
"I think it's something that our nurses are dealing with. Not being able to see our loved ones, not being able to travel because of the travel restrictions and stuff like that. When, normally when we have our break of work, we don't necessarily get to go out and do something fun," she said.
