Nurses on COVID-19 duty are not only among the most faceless of frontline health workers combating the virus, but also those who spend most time with infected patients, putting themselves and those in their immediate family at considerable risk.

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But the call of duty is ineluctable.

The Hindu spoke to some nurses at government hospitals in Kolkata designated for COVID-19 treatment. They speak of battles on two fronts — the relentless onslaught of the virus on the one hand and anxiety and loneliness on the other where even friends and relatives have stopped calling to pre-empt any personal contact.

Demanding regimen

According to these frontline workers, nursing staff on COVID-19 duty must work for four hours a day for seven successive days, followed by a 14-day break that is spent in self-quarantine. If they show symptoms within these 14 days, then they must get themselves tested and not join duty while maintaining isolation; if they test negative, they resume duty and the four-hour, seven-day routine resumes.

They all wear PPE, or personal protective equipment, but these can be constricting and make breathing difficult. Since the oxygen circulation in a N95 mask is limited, they are prone to dizziness.

A nurse feeling unwell is still required to spend an hour and a half on duty before being relieved. For those who don’t feel any discomfort, four hours of continuous duty is mandatory. During this period, they cannot eat food, drink water or use the restroom. They have a separate donning and doffing room for the PPE.

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Duty in COVID-19 wards with the constricting PPE poses further challenges because even though hospitals are centrally air-conditioned, the AC in these wards is turned off as the virus can spread via AC ducts due to negative pressure. The wards have no fans.

The nurses are on constant bedside duty. They provide all bedside care that includes administering saline drips, injections, medicines, nebulizers, taking care of patients on ventilator support, and assisting in endotracheal tubal suction and oral suction depending on the condition of the patient. All this while they are anxious about fomites — surfaces that can carry the virus. Even their hair is a fomite, which they need to wash often. Since drying their hair is difficult after the mandatory scrub and bath after nightshifts, many of them have cut their hair short.

At the end of a four-hour shift, they say the bridge of the nose and their ears are sore when they take of the tightly-fitting PPE. They feel dehydrated and dizzy but they cannot complain as they live with the constant worry of infecting their children and other family members in the absence of protestive gear.

Cut off from kin

One nurse has sent her child to stay with her elderly parents because her husband, a government doctor, is under lockdown in Asansol, a small town, west of Kolkata. Another nurse keeps herself confined to one room in her apartment, maintaining safe distance from her husband and child. Yet another nurse has left her husband, children and elderly in-laws and temporarily moved in with her mother.

And all of them have one common grouse: friends and relatives, who would call frequently in happier times, have now gone completely silent, underlining the severity of their isolation.