Nurse reflects on being at the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic
Mar. 9—Wilkes-Barre General Hospital registered nurse Joyce Sciandra has witnessed more patients die in the last few months than she has seen during her entire career.
One of her most devastating experiences was seeing a husband and wife die after battling COVID-19.
"We brought the wife into the husband's room and put their hands together and she died and a couple days later, the husband died," she said. "And that's not the first time. There were a couple husbands and wives who died and family members together."
For the last year, the 63-year-old nurse has worked on the front line of the pandemic caring for the sickest COVID-19 patients in the cardiovascular intensive care unit at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital.
After a second wave that started in the fall, Sciandra's entire unit became a COVID-19 unit.
There were many times from October through January that all 18 beds were filled with COVID-19 patients, she said.
"This wave was worse than the first," she said. "The holidays were horrible. It was really bad in the fall."
Sciandra, a Pittston resident, served as the primary caregiver for many patients who have died.
"It's tough for us because it's our community and there were more patients that we knew who were coming in," she said. "We knew their families. They were family members of patients we had. They were people I knew from my area."
Sciandra also has seen many patients put on ventilators when they can't get enough oxygen.
Patients range in age but most are older and most have other health conditions like asthma, diabetes or obesity, she said.
In February, she started seeing a decline in the number of patients. Recently, she said there were four COVID-19 patients in her unit.
Family members are not permitted in the hospital rooms of patients battling the highly contagious virus, she said.
When patients see Sciandra, other nurses, doctors, respiratory and lab technicians, it's the only time patients have human contact, she said.
If they are sedated, she doesn't know if they can hear her but she still talks to them. She uses an iPad if they want to talk to their family members through FaceTime.
"We have to warn them about what they're going to see," she said.
At the hospital, Sciandra wears a N95 mask, a face shield visor, a gown, two sets of gloves, a head cover and shoe covers when she sees patients.
"I have to come home to get a breath of fresh air," she said.
Outside of work, she is the mother of two children, Nikki and David and two grandchildren, Tyler and Natalie.
She wears her mask to visit her daughter and grandchildren and she waited after she received her two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to see her sister, who also received the vaccine.
After seeing what she sees at the hospital, she said there are some days she comes home from work and can't talk to anybody.
"You just keep reliving it in your head and you can't believe what's going on," she said.
As a nurse, Sciandra said her job is to help people get better and it's discouraging when she can't.
"You're watching these people and you know they're getting worse and you're trying everything," she said. "You don't know which patients are going to get better and which patients aren't. That's the tough part."
It's rewarding for Sciandra, however, when she sees patients get better and leave the hospital.
"Sometimes you feel that no matter how hard you try, there's nothing you can do but when we get those patients who go home, we focus on them so we know that we did something to help someone," she said.
Contact the writer:
570-821-2115, @CVAllabaugh
