'We're holding our own' | Houston-area emergency nurses handling new surge of COVID-19 patients despite exhaustion

HOUSTON — Emergency room nurses in Houston-area hospitals are treating rising levels of COVID-19 patients as cases climb.

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About 25% of ICU patients have the virus, according to Houston’s Chief medical officer, Dr. David Persse. About 10% of all patients in Houston-area hospitals have COVID-19.

As of Tuesday, the Texas Medical Center reported 1,259 COVID-19 patients in hospitals, compared to 1,127 two weeks prior.

The workload increases as more patients come in, and despite some traveling nurses still working in the Houston-area, medical staff can only treat so many patients in a 12-hour shift.

“I think nurses are getting a little tired, a little worn out. We’re busy," said Kevin McFarlane, a Houston-area ER nurse, and president of the Houston chapter of the Emergency Nurses Association. “The emergency department is the only place in the hospital that doesn’t get to say no.”

Even though the number of people in hospitals across Texas is close to late-July levels, according to Texas' Department of State Health Services, hospitals in the Med Center have a COVID-19 census of about half what they saw in the summer.

“I think they’re busy, but I think we’ve kind of hit a stride where we know we’ve been busy and the initial overwhelm, I think we’re past that," McFarlane said. “It’s going to have to be sustainable for as long as it sustains. It’s hard to say. It's a struggle.”

Persse said keeping healthy people out of the hospital can help medical staff, which means people must maintain diligent healthy habits: wearing a mask, practicing social distancing, and staying home when possible.

“The mayor pointed out that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Now is the time for hope, but it is also the time for us not to drop our guard," Persse said.

McFarlane was one of the hundreds of Houston-area healthcare workers who got the vaccine Tuesday, calling it an "injection of hope."

“Hopefully that will give us a little bit of protection because that’s what we need right now. That’s what ER nurses need right now. A little bit of protection, a little bit of hope," McFarlane said.