Covid Sick Benefits
The first perspective.....
Life is good. I had a pretty good day and I feel fortunate that on this bitterly cold evening that I can lie in my comfortable bed at 9 pm watching tv and falling asleep at my own time table. I have on my comfy nightgown and even have had the foresight of having a few cookies and a pitcher of ice water on my night table. I have been having difficulty sleeping lately so all signs point to a good sleep. I feel myself slipping away into the glorious arms of sleep. I even allow myself to have a dream, really a nice memory of good times gone by. Even though I hear myself lightly snoring, I am aware that I am smiling. And then, a light comes on and wakes me up. For some reason, there are two people in my room and they are pulling my covers off and touching my underwear. I want to scream but I am a little startled. One of them tells the other that I am good and they turn off the light and leave the room. I am fully awake but I talk myself into thinking what just happened was a dream. I am not warm or comfy now as my blankets are not right, but I am still going with the dream scenario. I have a couple of cookies and a couple of glasses of cold water and adjust my blankets. I stare at the ceiling for a while not quite sure of my bearings. I start to feel my eyes droop again and before I can fall asleep, the light goes on again. I am not sure if it is the same two people or a different pair. I try to react but I don't what my reaction should be. Should I be frightened and defensive, or confident and just start screaming. I do nothing while these two people talk to themselves. Apparently, I have urinated so much that my sheets need changing. They change my pyjamas and my bedding all while I am still on my bed. It happens quickly and on some level I admire their skill, but it makes me feel less than human and I can't seem to process what is happening. They leave me on my side that I don't like to sleep on. My comfy nightgown is gone and replaced with a threadbare one that should have been thrown out years ago. I am not only cold but emotionally uncomfortable because I don't like my nightgown. The bedding is different and feels cold because I haven't been lying on it. I don't think I will be able to fall back asleep but I am trying because I am feeling so tired. Tired on so many levels. I don't have to worry about sleep because they are back again turning on my light. This time one of them asks if I need anything. The whole thing seems bizarre but I hear myself asking if I can be turned on my other side. They turn me and wish me a good night. I don't really understand what is happening but I feel myself entering glorious sleep. Then, lots of noise. I am awake again. Someone opens my door and tells me to go back asleep and calls me momma. It is not my daughter and I can't just go back to sleep, it is just not that easy. I have a cookie and my last glass of water. I try to get up and go to the washroom and I am now on the floor and then I pee my pants. I am on the floor sitting in my cold urine when I remember something. I haven't been able to walk for years and I live in a personal care home. Night staff just left and day staff will be in report for the next twenty minutes so I will have to wait until then until someone helps me.
The second perspective.......
She starts her shift the same way she starts almost every shift, with a bunch of yawns. She is tired but so is everyone on shift so it doesn't have to state the obvious. Tonight, as with most nights, they are short-staffed. Someone called in sick and there is no one to replace them. No one complains because it won't help and it will likely get you a trip "to the office" to talk about the attitude. Not that she cares about discipline, but it will take about an hour and it is not fair to the other staff for them to be any more short staffed. She doesn't love her job but it serves a number of purposes. Working nights allows her to be there to make breakfast and get her kids off to school. She is also there when they come home and can make supper and have time together. She hates waking people up every two hours and wish she could let them sleep but she doesn't want anyone to try to sleep in wet clothes or sheets. She knows that wet skin can lead to infection or skin break down which can be a very serious medical condition. She almost feels sorry for those that can still walk and toilet themselves because she imagines it must be so much harder for them to fall back asleep. She almost wishes that the Home wouldn't be always pushing fluids. Always encouraging the residents to drink. She knows that is the right thing for them, but she can't help think there would be fewer changes if they weren't drinking so much. She knows she could do her rounds so much quicker if she didn't have a partner but it is safer for everyone having two people at all times. She quickly checks Mrs. Smith and it gives her a little lift that her product is only 30% wet so she doesn't need to be changed. Mrs. Smith is quite a heavy wetter so this gives her a little hope that the shift will go well. During her next round, Mrs. Smith has not only saturated her product but has wet all of her bedding. She feels bad for Mrs. Smith that she has been lying in her urine and she hopes it wasn't long. In theory, it is easy to change someone and their bedding while they are in bed. In practice, it is not that easy. For one thing, no matter how high the bed is raised, the two people doing the work are always different heights so one back is always strained. Do that several times a shift, and your back is sore for the day. She checks her clock. She has three hours left but the bad news is that she has about four hours of work left to do. It is hard for her to find her job satisfying. She never has time to do any extras like give a resident a back rub or spend time talking to someone confused or lonely. Again, she doesn't complain because she is grateful for her job. Her shift is over and she makes it home in time to wake up her husband and her kids. Her husband and her cook breakfast and make sure the backpacks contain what they should. They enjoy breakfast as a family and laugh a lot. She treasures these times. She kisses her husband good-bye and enjoys a few extra minutes with the kids before she drives them to school. She drops them off and heads off to her part-time job which is only five hours a day. She is able to get home in time to have an hour to herself to do laundry. clean the house, and get dinner started. Sometimes her best friend joins her to visit while she has this time alone. She feels blessed that she is able to pick her kids up from school and she either takes them to an extra-curricular activity or help them with their homework. After dinner, she can usually sleep for a few hours from 7 pm - 10:30 pm. It simply isn't enough sleep. She has been reading that driving while sleep impaired has similar effects to driving while impaired with substances. She thanks the good Lord for watching over her. And the shift begins again. Weekends are spent with extended family and volunteering. She has been given a great deal from the kindness of strangers and she needs to role model for her children the importance of giving back. She gets two nights off a week. Every second week, they are consecutive. Two consecutive full nights of sleep in a row. It is such a luxury. The other week, she gets two nights off and those sleeps are also lovely just not as glorious as two nights in a row. Regardless, she just doesn't get enough sleep and she feels like she is operating on low gear most of the time. She hates doing this but often when she gets accumulates enough hours to get a full shift of sick leave, she will call in sick. She is not lying. She is exhausted and sleep is her cure. Of course, that means the rest of the staff will be short. It is a vicious cycle. She also knows that she just never will accumulate enough sick leave if she comes down with some sort of illness.
She finishes her next shift and gets home and notices a text from her son's school. Her son has been identified as a close contact to a positive case of Covid19 and advises that her son will need to be tested and suggested all members of the family be tested as well. What if he is positive and the rest of the family is negative? They don't have resources for childcare and who could they ask anyway. Neither she nor her husband can afford to take time off. What if the whole family is positive? How will they survive financially? There is a backlog in testing? They won't have any results for several days. Can they ethically go to work if there is a possibility that they may be infectious. Perhaps there is some sort of assistance if they are positive and need to self-isolate. But, if they self-isolate and then turn out to be negative, then what? These are not casual concerns. These are decisions that in reality may affect the rest of the lives of their family. Atleast her husband has some accumulated sick time that he can access.
There is a lot of things that our leaders still need to work out. Even though we are almost two years into this virus, there are many decisions to make. The ripple effects of not having sick time available for those who may or do have Covid19 are enormous. This is a real issue in real time. Maybe there is not a one size fits all solution but we can't have people going to work if they think they have the virus just because they can't afford to take time off. Contact your decision makers. Beg them to figure this one out.
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