Health

‘U.S Is Not Well Prepared For Coronavirus’ – Health Worker Says

Published

5 years ago

February 29, 2020

Dugan is a veteran nurse at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, where two coronavirus patients were transferred this month. UCSF is one of the premier hospitals in the country, but Dugan says her frustrations are mounting because she says her employer offered little notice or training to those caring for the infected patients.

“We want to do the best. We work extremely hard to do the best for our patients, so don’t set us up to fail,” Dugan says. “It’s not only nurses — it’s all the other staff. It’s nursing assistants; it’s transport. Every staff member is worried.”

Coronavirus has yet to sicken American health workers, as it has in China. But deaths of hospital workers in Asia have heightened scrutiny of the U.S. health care system’s ability to protect people on the front line.

Dugan says the medical community wasn’t fully prepared for previous viruses, like SARS and Ebola — and she’s concerned that lessons learned are not being applied today. For example: The protective garments provided, she says, leave the wearer’s neck exposed.