She has no illusion why she's getting hazard pay: 'It's what the military gets, in case they die' A travel nurse treats covid-19 patients
is a series where we talk to workers of all kinds about a single day in their lives.Dana’s alarm goes off at 5:00 a.m. on a Wednesday, in her home—a short-term rental in Minnesota. It’s the morning of her third scheduled shift out of five that week; she snoozes the alarm and doesn’t get out of bed until about 5:25. After washing her face and brushing her teeth, she puts her hair into the low bun that she favors.
As a travel nurse, Dana is used to reshaping her life every few months. But adapting to pandemic care can be draining, even for someone who has been practicing emergency medicine for years. Dana was finishing up a job at a hospital in Louisiana when the state logged its first batch of covid-19 cases. That contract ended April 6th. Weighing a set of internal variables, she chose to take her next eight-week stint here.
About half her current colleagues are in from out-of-state. The others are local nurses shouldering the increased risk. The health system Dana is working for furloughed scores of employees as most procedures and surgeries were canceled over the last months. The nurses who qualified to work in this covid-19 hospital, the ones with ICU or emergency experience, were offered hazard pay, to fill this particular need.
At 4:00 it’s time for lunch. Dana never did drink that water, so she drinks it now, sitting in silence for about half an hour. When she returns she finds one of her earlier patients, stable all day, had gone hypoxic—a dangerous condition where there isn’t enough oxygen circulating through the blood. He’s spiked a fever, too. Dana and her colleagues pack him in ice and watch him slowly improve.
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