Vaccination Matters

As a vaccinated RN providing bedside care, I encounter patients who are unvaccinated and still trying to work through whether they should be vaccinated. One patient, in particular, had recently lost her spouse, not to COVID, and her son had just gone away to his sophomore year of college. They both came down with COVID, he was fine, she was not. She told me 'I'm healthy, I exercise frequently, I don't drink or do drugs, I'm educated, I thought I would be okay. Apparently, I wasn't." When she finally came into the ED her sats were in the 70's and she could barely breathe. She told me "The doctor said I might need to be intubated." At this point, she was alone and afraid. By the time I took care of her, she was SOB with any activity but able to keep her sats in the 90's with 2 liters of oxygen. Her son told her he was going to drop out of school for the year so he could take care of her. She was able to talk him out of it and was starting to feel better.

We talked for quite some time, how she felt initially, how scared she was that she was going to die and leave her son, and her regrets for not having been vaccinated. She told me she is going to tell everyone she knows to get vaccinated, it isn't worth it, I don't know why I didn't just do it. Not all patients that become ill after getting COVID decide to get vaccinated and not all of them encourage it. But when they do, it makes it all worth it. She survived and will live to tell everyone she knows to get vaccinated. Most importantly, she will be around to see her son again!

Brandy Summers, BSN, RN, SANE-A, CEN, TCRN