Repurposed, Reassigned, Redeployed

Hecht, Patricia

In this warzone of the new coronavirus, nurses, doctors, and healthcare workers are being moved to units they are unfamiliar with. They are frightened and experiencing feelings of inadequacy and helplessness they haven’t known since their early postgraduate days. My patient, an OR nurse of 30 years, is one of those reassigned from her place of comfort to the trenches of the intensive care unit (ICU). Her years of nursing expertise are sorely needed, but the need competes with her overwhelming feelings of deficiency. She feels held hostage by all she does not know about critical care nursing. This case study addresses the patient’s move in therapy from paralysis to a position of resilience that enables her to recognize and use her skills to move forward and contribute in her own unique way. It also ties in to how the general population has had to find ways to reconfigure their lives to survive and thrive.