Slowly but surely you just get used to a new normal. You begin to not be surprised when someone comes up COVID positive. You do your due diligence, wear your masks, wash your hands, disifect everything touched. At least we were back to working as a team in the gym.
The first true glimmer of hope.
Finally the first of vaccines were being released after approval for use. With all the horror stories and disastrous outcomes in nursing homes, we were pushed towards the front of the line.
There was actually a significant number of residents and staff that took full advantage of this new tool. Now the hard part was the waiting game to make it through the series without getting sick.
At first it was like a miracle and feeling very confident and comfortable working again. Unfortunately still with a surgical mask on all day.
Then the variants start
After some time of feeling very confident and almost normal, the new variants started circulating through the population. But fortunately most of our staff and residents were having a much easier time recovering from infection with much improved outcomes.
The new normal begins
We were now getting to the point where buisness was just about back to normal. We were able to continue with treatment in the gym. We were able to return to group treatments. You could easily see the drastic difference in the overall mental well-being of the residents when the were able to fully interact with other residents and truely have some fun again. It was so rewarding to give the gift of smiles and laughter to treatment sessions again.
Overall it has been progressively returning to normal. Rules change based on COVID factors. These new guidelines utilize any infection in the building as well as what is currently going on in the community. We have actually had times of no masks worn at all again.
It is amazing how odd it feels to work without a mask at times. It had almost become a part of our uniform. It is definitely nice to have some free choice of masking either with a surgical or N95 depending on the circumstances and personal preferences. You can easily be extra precautions with a higher protective mask when getting close to personal events or vacations without any odd looks.
With the use of the quick tests it is nice to know that we can more easily screen ourselves or the residents we serve if they start getting some type of symptoms. Testing this way has also allowed for quicker intervention such as the new antiviral meds to help keep these highly susceptible residents with milder symptoms and improving the outcomes.
Here is to the future
So at this point we can only look forward and utilize what we have learned and experienced the past few years. When needed we ramp up prevention and surveillance. When things are calm we can slow down and relax for a while. If anything we have truely become more adaptive on the go and have tools to use. Our lessons did truely help us to grow not only as therapists but as overall caregivers and people.
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