Cornelia Dürkhäuser could hardly believe this news. Usually, she spends most of her time in the intensive care unit of a hospital near Dresden. Nevertheless, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic – on April 15th – she was sent to short-time work. "We were told about a week before. I was quite stunned, angry too," she says, and continues: "How can it be that in the course of Corona management, capacities are empty, treatments are not carried out, staff are sent to short-time work because of a lack of work, because – sorry for the expression – there are not enough seriously ill Corona patients?"
It is in itself a good thing that in Germany significantly fewer people were severely ill with Covid-19 than presumed. At the same time, she considers it important to quickly open the capacities for other treatments. Whether intensive care places could be better coordinated, for example redistributed nationwide? "If you want, a lot is possible," the doctor replies, but restricts: "However, this involves a lot of logistical effort: you don't transport intensive care patients with a random ambulance." In addition, transport naturally poses risks for patients. This is another reason why Cornelia Dürkhäuser sits at home and waits to return to work in the hospital. She thinks the development in the health care sector in Germany is "very absurd", says Dürkhäuser: "Until four weeks ago, I never expected that I would ever be threatened with short-time work. On the contrary, the workload has increased steadily since the beginning of my career." However, she does not see the impending collapse of the health system, which is often discussed in the media because of the coronavirus. "At least not nationwide and not by Corona," she adds. If anything, this collapse has been threatened for years by personnel policy and forced austerity.
„There is no need to register short-time work.“ – Statement of the Marburger Bund:
Decisions on coronavirus control not comprehensible
Intensive care nurse Kathrin Seif is non-clinically active and addresses other aspects: "The handling of the pandemic was hasty and not transparent enough to make political decisions comprehensible. A curfew has been imposed, a controversial mask requirement has been introduced after weeks of the pandemic, and penalties have been imposed in the event of non-compliance." The public lacked the conclusive justifications for the measures. Instead of explanations from politicians, she observes a flood of information that causes panic among many people: "Thereis a lot of things that are not comprehensible or explainable to each individual at the moment." As a specialist, she wanted to stress that a disease like this should not be underestimated, but there is also no reason for "panicking". Even though some of the protective masks had become scarce and were worn longer than usual, the hygiene measures were nevertheless relatively feasible throughout. “We have been able to deal with other epidemics in the past. Germany is very well positioned in the healthcare sector Our professionals are even admired abroad for their handling of the virus.” "Toughly said" the politics only became aware of the work that medical personnel in Germany do on a daily basis through the pandemic. "Our profession, whether a doctor or a nurse, is suddenly in the spotlight," Seif says. They would never have received as much recognition as they do today, even if they had long wished for it. "For so many years we have been fighting for more staff, more pay and more justified recognition," she says. Unfortunately, bonus payments have only been announced so far, as it is unclear who will ultimately pay the money. "So now only Bavaria will certainly get a reward."
More than black and white
So far, the health system in Germany has withstood the coronavirus pandemic. In addition to the contact restrictions, this is mainly due to the nurses and their enormous commitment. Krzykalla has been working as an intensive care nurse on a specialist hospital for lung disease for the past two years and sees with her own eyes what Covid-19 means. She recently shared her experiences on Facebook and received a lot of encouragement from colleagues for a post. However, he also called conspiracy theorists on the scene. "I now also put the mail on private at night, so I don't have to worry about who's going to get over it at night," she reveals. That is why an understandable investigation into coronavirus is of great importance. Krzykalla cites the podcast by virologist Christian Drosten as a positive example, although his language is sometimes "very medical." She wants a format that uses even simpler vocabulary. But she knows how difficult it is to explain: "You can't teach people badly, there are no uniform symptoms, no uniform course, and no universal drug." Asked how she felt about the current debates about easing infection-protective measures, given her experience with Covid-19, she said: "I think it's important that people are told much more precisely why the measure was introduced in the first place."
Contact restrictions due to coronavirus additional load
Laura Härer, a 31-year-old nurse who works in a retirement home in Saulheim near Mainz, has also worked with Covid-19 sufferers. It is experiencing the impact of the measures particularly strongly. For the residents of the home as well as themselves, she sees the contact restrictions and visiting bans as an additional challenge. "It is astonishing the impact of visiting relatives and acquaintances. It's never been seen on this scale before," she says.
Whether it's eating together, taking a walk or just a smile: "They provide orientation through the daily visits," says Härer. Physical closeness is particularly important: "A child can simply convey with the best love and closeness." But the bans on visits would eliminate this and the nurses would have to compensate for this as much as possible. This makes it all the more important to pay more attention to the residents, combined with an increased effort and increasing documentation obligations. At the same time, protective masks and clothing made personal contact difficult, at least available, says Härer: "This makes it impossible to smile simply with the residents." In the same way, the situation is unusual for skilled workers and even more difficult to manage, since social contacts are largely dormant.
But it is not possible now to live out this balance in society. This only helps to a limited extent when people applaud from their balconies. She is very pleased with such recognition, confirms Härer. "But that doesn't solve the tragic conditions that exist in our industry," she says. This is the only reason why nurses are called heroes "because there are enough who work in sometimes dire conditions for the residents and out of professional honour". She believes it is the luck of the industry that skilled workers in emergency situations are pushing even more to their limits. At the moment, like Seif, she is particularly concerned that each state deals differently with the special burden on nurses caused by the coronavirus. Here promised bonuses, meals paid there and then support from the Medical Service of Health Insurance (MDK). "For me, it is not uniformly regulated and this has to be done nationwide," says Härer. In order to improve conditions in the long term, she believes that the financing of the health sector should be changed: "This is the only way to raise the level." On the one hand, this includes better pay and more recognition for work. At the same time, the benefits would have to remain affordable for those affected, and additional costs should not increase. Experts would have to look for solutions here.
Rapid development
Research in children's boots
Although the scientific debates in recent weeks have been mainly organized by the virologists Drosten, Kekule and Streeck, Richter speaks of a media-balanced discourse. "Many people are heard, so it is also multi-voiced, which is not always easy for laymen to understand," he says – and there are quite different disciplines. But just as important as the diversity of reporting is that scientists explained their findings as understandably as possible. "No scientist can expect media representatives or the 'ordinary citizen' to understand scientific gibberish," Richter says.