Hospital staff sent in to help Melbourne aged care homes heavily infected with coronavirus say they are being regularly confronted with distressing scenes.
Key points:
- Geriatrician Dr Jesse Zanker said he had to break terrible news to aged care residents and their families every day
- Nurses are sometimes left in tears at the end of their shifts
- Clinical nursing consultant Shane Durance said staff are doing everything they can to care for residents
Major Melbourne hospitals have been asked by state and Commonwealth governments to take control of, or help assist, badly understaffed aged care facilities with rampant COVID-19 infections. They are now working with the original aged care staff as a 'blended' team.
Western Health, which runs Footscray and Sunshine Hospitals, has been sending in specialised medical teams since late June to support nursing homes in crisis. Before COVID, its aged care in-reach service had five staff; it has now grown to a team of 45 aged care nurses and geriatricians.
In recent days it has been appointed to take over running two of the hardest hit facilities, while it continues to assist with more than 20 other profit and not-for-profit aged care homes.
One facility that geriatrician Dr Jesse Zanker and his colleagues entered had close to a majority of its more than 100 residents infected with COVID-19.
Dr Zanker told 7.30 he was having to break terrible news to residents and their families every day, including multiple palliative or "end of life" discussions.
"The night has fallen and unfortunately, so has our faith in the world," Dr Zanker said after one gruelling shift.
"It's been a pretty rough night here at the facility we're just leaving, having had multiple palliative conversations and tearful nurses — having received no handover — coming into patients or residents that are approaching end of life without supports in place."
He said these conversations, in which he uses words like "dying" and "death", often brought a relief to families who had, up until that point, found it difficult to obtain any information about their loved ones' health.
Nurses in tears because they can't do more
Dr Zanker's colleague, clinical nurse consultant Shane Durance, said staff were doing their "absolute best", but they were walking into the situation blind.
"[The doctors and nurses] are new to the facilities, most of them are new to working with aged care residents and most of them are new to each other," Mr Durance said.
"They're not familiar with the physical layout, the equipment, or the systems in place to support patients and they're not familiar with the patients' histories."
Mr Durance has worked in aged care for more than 40 years and said staff could not do any more to help patients than they were currently doing.
"Tonight, I worked with three nurses who were all in tears at one stage or another, including myself, basically because they want to be able to do more and can't, in the context of current circumstances in the world of COVID and the resources and the level of support that's available to them," he said.
"I know they're going to go home tonight and think they haven't done enough. I've been working since 1976, and I can tell you that they've done everything they can."
Dr Zanker agreed, saying doctors and nurses are hamstrung by factors outside their control.
"At times, we're significantly distressed and exasperated at the circumstances in which we've found ourselves, where we are unable to provide the optimal care that we sought for a multitude of reasons."
Usual staffing numbers are down considerably because aged care workers have taken ill or are quarantining. More than 1,100 staff in aged care homes have contracted COVID-19.
Dr Zanker said the remaining aged care staff had been working exceptionally hard over the past few months to care for residents and were now working together with hospital staff.
Watch this story tonight on 7.30.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMib2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTA4LTE3L2RvY3RvcnMtYW5kLW51cnNlcy1zZW50LWludG8tYWdlZC1jYXJlLWNvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWNyaXNpcy1zcGVhay8xMjU2MDA4MNIBJ2h0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvYXJ0aWNsZS8xMjU2MDA4MA?oc=5
2020-08-16 19:19:00Z
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