EAST MEADOW — The current resurgence of COVID-19 rates across New York finds CSEA members, including those employed in health care and emergency response, in a much better position to navigate through the difficulties of day-to-day operations due to responding to high COVID-19 infection rates during the spring.
NUMC emergency response worker Mat Field battles through the physical and emotional strain of being a frontline worker. Photo provided by Mat Field.
“This time, we’re a little more prepared,” said Nassau University Medical Center (NUMC) Emergency Medical Services worker Matthew Field. “Based on our training and what we learned the first time around, we know how to handle it. At this point, as crazy as it sounds, it’s just another day at work. This is the world we’re living in now.”
For the protection of the EMS workers and the general public, Nassau County EMS workers are diligent about making sure everyone they work with is wearing proper personal protective equipment (PPE). Workers also decontaminate ambulances after every call.
“We don’t want to be super spreaders, so we treat every call like it’s a COVID call for the protection of ourselves and the community,” said Field.
EMS workers say they have been seeing more calls in the last few weeks of people who have tested positive and want to be taken to the hospital.
One might think that all EMS workers are treated with the same professional courtesy that CSEA EMS workers are treated with, especially during these historic times. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
CSEA members are very happy to be standing in the strength of CSEA membership, which comes with a large body of people fighting to ensure that they have the PPE that they need to protect themselves from COVID-19 infection.
“CSEA has done a great job of fighting on our behalf to make sure that everything we need to execute our jobs safely is readily available,” said Field.
The CSEA members who work as service providers also have the comfort of knowing that the health insurance that was negotiated for them in their union contract will be helpful to them in the unfortunate event that they were to get sick with the coronavirus.
CSEA also has an Occupational Safety and Health Department that is staffed with experts who members can consult to help them assess safety risks within the confines of the workplace.
Before the pandemic, EMS workers typically worked alone. With the onset of COVID-19, the hospital instructed workers to operate in pairs. This change in daily operations has helped CSEA members with the emotional toll of their current reality.
“It really helps to discuss what you’re feeling with someone else,” said Field. “It’s better for your mental health to have someone to bounce those feelings off of, rather than harbor them internally.”
Being a shoulder to lean on has extended to the families of the patients the ambulance operators transport.
Because Nassau University Medical Center has again shut down to visitors during the recent COVID resurgence, EMS workers find themselves consoling family members who not only can’t visit their relatives in the hospital, but may not ever see their loved one again.
“We find ourselves almost acting as social workers,” said Field. “We’re explaining hospital processes and procedures to families, which is something that we never had to do before the pandemic.”
To learn more about COVID-19 and how your employer should protect you, visit https://cseany.org/safety.
— Wendi Bowie
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