Nurses at Swedish ICU open up about treating COVID-19 patients

ISSAQUAH, Wash. — Nurses at Swedish campuses have treated more than 100 coronavirus patients. On Friday Swedish Issaquah released a video tour of the ICU. Nurses talked about what it is like to be on the front lines of COVID-19 from their first patient, to saving their masks, just in case.

"It was very scary. We were all very nervous about what we were going to be dealing with, especially when we got our first patient, said Tasha Hensdill, a charge nurse inside the ICU at Swedish Issaquah. “No one really knew what was going on with this virus, how it was spreading, what it did to people.”

Hendsill showed the negative pressure rooms and blue tape on the floor outside the rooms that reminded them to put on and take off their PPEs. Items for COVID-19 patients are stored in carts outside the rooms so they don’t get contaminated.

“We’ve really streamlined what we put in here to minimize waste. We don’t see boxes of N95 because we don’t want to waste anything,” explained Hensdill.

Knowing nurses can stay safe, brings peace of mind, allowing them to keep working. Nurse manager Renae Hawkins showed a wall with lunch sacks holding precious masks.

"When they leave their shift they always save it because we never know when you come back if there will be a mask available," said Hawkins. So far Swedish says it has not run out of PPEs.

Swedish campuses have treated more than 100 coronavirus patients.

ICU Nurse Bethany Walden-Cloclough described the day the first patient went home.

“It was one of the wins where you go home at the end of the day, your team one, it was the Super Bowl, and everyone’s having a party it was the most rewarding feeling you could feel.”

They keep close contact with families, using FaceTime to communicate with patients and sometimes to even say goodbye.

“No matter what happens we are always there. If the family is unable to be here or be reached that patient will not leave this world alone,” said Walden-Cloclough.

Doctors and nurses in the ICUs at all the local hospitals started a text chain so they could communicate with each other in real-time -- what they are seeing, what is working, to help them save lives together.

© 2020 Cox Media Group