execoftheyear wrote:pingpongrac wrote:Everyone has a life outside of work. Why should LTC workers be allowed to live their lives freely?execoftheyear wrote:
LTC homes were hit the hardest before halloween and will continue to be the most vulnerable post halloween. I'm not saying nurses should get a pass for their irresponsible behaviour, I'm just saying there really is no way to protect the elderly in LTC homes given the nature of the work involved in taking care of them, the environment in these homes and the fact that the people responsible for taking care of them have lives outside of working there. You can restrict visitors but you can't really restrict the people directly taking care of them.
I'm sick of these BS excuses for people being inconsiderate and irresponsible during the pandemic. I've been working through the pandemic aside from a two-week stretch early on where I thought I may be infected (and at the time, tests were only available to people that fell under the high risk category), so I did the safe thing and self-isolated. The only people I interacted with for the first 6 months was immediate family of my now-fiancée and myself and one friend (who got tested before visiting for a weekend).
My mom was diagnosed with cancer in July and was on her way to beating it before passing suddenly in late September. Because she left behind a son with autism and a dog along with a pile of personal belongings, I started to see more extended family (grandparents, aunts/uncles and cousins) as we tried to navigate this situation and figure out what to do about everything for a few weeks. Even so, we've kept our distance and wore masks when we're going to be in close contact (inside a house or a car, etc.).
I'm sure there are many people who can relate -- maybe even yourself -- but do you know how hard it is to not be able to have a funeral or proper memorial service for my mom while other people are attending big parties because they're bored and miss their old lives?
I'm not referring to living their lives as in partying. I'm talking basic day to day essentials like for example looking after their kids who everyday are at high risk of getting it from simply going to school everyday while their parents are working at a LTC. People keep saying why don't we just isolate the elderly since they're the most vulnerable but the solution isn't this simple when you consider that the people taking care of them have other responsibilities outside of working at an LTC home. That's my point. It's easy for people that are able to work from home to just say self isolate, but when you're a nurse working at a LTC home with a family to take care of, it's a lot more difficult to do your job while following all the safety protocols.
Yes, there are risks. minimizing those risks is what we are talking about here. Triaging what should/needs to be open and what doesn't is pretty straight forward, especially now that we know there are vaccines on the way. When cases are going way up, pay everyone else to stay home for a few weeks to a month until cases go back down, then think about reopening restaurants or other non essential businesses.