LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Healthcare workers have taken care of COVID-19 patients for almost two years now and the omicron variant is bringing its own set of challenges to those on the frontlines.
Gina Boshears, Clinical Services Manager at UAMS, said the amount of patients they're seeing right now is 'overwhelming.'
"We're all exhausted. Our families miss us. I miss having dinner with my children. I miss doing homework with them and we just have to put all of that aside right now and fight through this together," she said.
Each day presents a challenge for the healthcare workers and right now it's a daily battle inside UAMS's COVID-19 unit for employees like Leslie Hallum, who works as a Respiratory Therapist.
"In my 20-years, these last two years have been the hardest. Just the most stressful, I guess you could say," she said.
It's been a constant battle against the disease.
"Our patients are sicker and there are more of them," Hallum said.
But it's also been a battle within themselves, according to Patient Care Tech Lauren Shillcutt.
"You have to remember at the end of the day, I'm here because I want to help these people," she said.
Boshears has been in healthcare for over 30-years. This disease altering almost everything she knew.
"It wasn't anything that any of us ever saw coming. We always use the expression, 'Well before COVID,' because it's as though it's changed healthcare entirely," she said.
Boshears knows first-hand, as Clinical Services Manager, how much staff is needed to take care of the surge of patients.
"Everyone is sick, I spend most of my time calling and asking people, begging people to come in," she said.
The toll omicron is taking on the staff means many, like Hallum, are picking up at least one extra 12-hour shift a week.
"It's just a different level of exhaustion. When you're at work, you're always critical thinking, but more so now," she said.
Even when Hallum is outside the hospital walls, she said it's almost impossible to escape what's going on behind the closed doors.
"When you get home you just try not to think about it, but it's everywhere so it's hard not to," she said.
While it seems as though this is never-ending and the fatigue is taking its toll, some are choosing to walk away.
"It's discouraging to see so many people leaving the field in record numbers. It's really hard to see," Shillcutt said.
But many, like Shillcutt, are ready to put on the gown and the gloves.
"This is the career field that I want to be in and I want to care for patients. I want to take care of people, and just love on them and help them get better," she said.
One of the things that the healthcare workers said is different this time around is that the disease isn't as obvious.
A lot of patients are showing different COVID symptoms, so the positive tests are more surprising.