LEBANON, Pa. — Emily Aston has been a registered nurse for the last two years. There are nurses who she says have been working at Wellspan Good Samaritan hospital in Lebanon for three decades who say they've never experienced conditions like they're currently working under.
The COVID-19 pandemic, and the recent surge in positive cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, have created a grief-filled environment inside local hospitals, whose health care professionals are working 12-hour shifts daily to handle the onslaught of sick patients.
"We see patients who are very sick," Aston said. "Patients who are really fighting for their lives and we do what we can to assist with their treatments and encourage and provide them with the necessary resources that we have available to help them fight the disease."
Aston adds Wellspan administrators are constantly encouraging staff to check in with their own mental health, urging people to get outside, exercise, and get plenty of sleep on their free time. It's necessary to help save the lives of others.