Everything is at stake now

We were never prepared for something like this to happen.There are now over 3000 cases of Covid-19 in Sweden and the majority of the cases are found in Stockholm where I work as a nurse.

Long before the pandemic happened our healthcare system was already dealing with  problems in shortage of resources and lack of personnel and now we are absolutely overwhelmed. I work at the emergency department as a nurse where i treat fragile and sick elderly patients. l am afraid that if we receive Covid-positive patients we wont be able to help them because we don t have enough respiratory for everyone.

Being a nurse in a crisis like this I must admit, I feel very anxious every time I go to work

Whether it's because of the lack of proper personal protective equipment so we can  protect ourselves from the virus and ease the spread of it, or not being able to provide for covid patients, everything is at stake now.

Every time I get to work they always change our working routines, the public health authority is constantly coming up with new recommendations and orders on how to handle this crisis. It's a constant adaptation for me and my coworkers.

I am personally worried about my health because for the sake of my family, I don't want to bring the virus home to them.

And just like most of the people my everyday life has become more restricted, I am trying to follow the orders and recommendations of the public health authorities on staying indoors as much as possible and keeping social distance.

The only time I leave my home is to go to the hospital to help my patients and coworkers.

Before the  hardest part of my work was dealing with unhappy patients, whether it be because they haven't received their desired food, medicine or proper consultation time with their doctor, and this is a result of  the lack of resources and time, and yet we still worked extremely hard to provide proper care for everyone.

Today the toughest part of my job has become calling the patient's family to inform them about the death of their loved ones.‹Everything is at stake now

Elay, Nurse, Stockholm Sweden