This section will be dedicated to COVID-19 information. Priority on Nursing-Specific information.

April 16, 2020

Dear Resus Nurse Podcast listeners,

I’ve had some time off to take care of my health – I didn’t ghost you…and I’m back!

With the onset of COVID-19 turning into a pandemic, I, like many of you out there tried to get a sense of what is going on. We’ve been fortunate to learn from our colleagues from China, Italy, and many other countries. The only statement I feel somewhat comfortable saying is that this virus does whatever it wants and doesn’t follow any “rules.” The range of patients I saw before getting sick was extreme along with their phenotype variations. This has also challenged all of my understanding of medicine, nursing, protocols, disease predictability – seems like everything goes out the window. I’ve been wrong so many times. #FOAMed, #FOANed, #MedTwitter and #NurseTwitter have been incredible for information sharing and collectively coming together. Traditional outlets of education have been too slow to respond appropriately. To be open and flexible with what is the “right treatment” is probably key right now.

In the meantime, I think anyone who is out on the frontlines are doing the best we can and trying to gather whatever “evidence” we can find. Until that happens, we have to handle what is in front of us right now. Even though this may sound contradictory – some of what is happening has no validity on the level of evidence-based medicine. That being said, we are also trying to save as many lives as possible and it requires thinking outside of the box. The evidence will happen and it will support or not support our actions in hindsight, it just requires some time…and research. Time, unfortunately, hasn’t been on our side.

To be frank, I think that we need a ton of research to understand this virus and also how to best treat COVID-19. This means pairing up with your research friends and enroll patients. Speaking of research, please, let’s do our best to critically appraise the literature that is being published. Spreading misguided information is something I find to be detrimental. I encourage you to go to the original research and ask questions – ask a lot of them. If you’re not on the frontlines, there’s a lot of need for research, palliative care, health policy, advocacy, etc.

While on the frontlines in NYC, I became ill with COVID-19 like symptoms. I am still sick but getting better and remaining optimistic. I also have no clue if I actually have it because nothing is making sense…deep down I believe I am sick with it. I won’t know until good serology testing is available. I hope to recover before then and go back to the frontlines where I feel the most useful. There’s a sense of imposter syndrome I am experiencing to write on COVID-19. Ultimately we are all learning more and more about this virus. I am going to do my best to provide information – but the information is changing quickly. I want listeners and readers to correct me – this is how we can learn together. Phenotype variations seem to have different dominance in different areas…it simply is not a clear-cut i.e. sepsis, myocardial infarction, etc.

Information changes quickly – minutes, hours, days. Ongoing information will be updated. Please check date of publishing as information may change.

This is an unprecedented time in our lives and while we are putting our best forward – please, let’s check in on each other…we’re all hurting and scared inside. Our limits will be tested repeatedly and we will break down and cry. But I know we are strong, and even stronger as we work together. At some point this pandemic will pass. Kindness and thoughtfulness to each other and to ourselves have never been more precious qualities.

Thanks,
Yun Cee

Below are more COVID-19 links

Nursing Education

Also of special note, Canadian friends Resus Tonight with Allan & Rob organized a free, open source, international program specifically on COVID-19 related topics:

https://covid19.epicclearning.ca

Nursing International Support & Learning Group

Initially organized by Joséfine Declaye, an ICU Nurse from Belgium, to provide  information sharing on COVID-19 and also for nurses to support each other.

A drive with all the things we shared

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VY4GA-RbmN3SCRg5kCN8GdIR6ae-8Btc?usp=sharing 

The aim of this group is for us to support each other all over the world during those difficult times. 

Feel free to express yourself 🙂 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ASIj2h35TSGF8p69kbhmukISRuUFs6zJAqxgeDB1rrc/edit?usp=sharing

#strongnurses #sharingiscaring

Mechanical Ventilation

How to use a ventilator Video:
https://www.edx.org/course/mechanical-ventilation-for-covid-19

Physician Blogs

https://rebelem.com/rebel-covid19/
https://emcrit.org/ibcc/covid19/
https://litfl.com/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/
https://emupdates.com
https://www.emrap.org

Testing

Treatment

Transmission

PPE

Cite this post as