FORT WORTH, Texas — A look inside Texas Health Harris Hospital in Fort Worth shows staff taking all precautions after the first spread of the coronavirus. Since day one of the pandemic, nurses and other hospital staff, not knowing another surge would hit, set out to win the battle against COVID.
Nurses, like Charlsea Prichard, are working overtime at Texas Health Harris Hospital. Staffing is sufficient right now, but that could change if the number of infected people needing hospitalization keeps rising.
It's a fight that healthcare workers endured and challenged themselves to beat.
"Well, we thought we did. But you know as the variant and the strain keeps changing, we just don't, and we try to stay prepared and stay one step ahead," said Prichard.
Staying one step ahead means without fail putting on the extra protection at work like gloves, protective aprons and always wearing a mask.
"We have to be here," Prichard.
She serves as the director of critical care at Texas Health Harris Hospital. She takes her job seriously as one of the people who has seen it all in health care.
Just like many of her coworkers, taking care of sick people is in her blood.
"My mom is a nurse," Prichard said. "I always saw how rewarding it was for her as a nurse, and I knew that was my calling also."
Now, she is calling on everyone in North Texas to help stop this latest surge. She encourages the public to do as many nurses have done. Every day they go to work they are putting themselves at risk. Still, they put patients who need their expertise first.
Even with all the precautions they take like getting vaccinated, booster shots, and even doubling up sometimes on face masks, they know the risk they're taking when caring for people with COVID.
Prichard says being vaccinated has made a huge difference among the people now hospitalized.
Prichard said, "Most of the people in our hospital are unvaccinated, and of course, wear a mask if you are indoors, social distance and wash your hands."
Even as the COVID numbers surge, nurses who don't have the "work from home" option promise they'll show up, especially if it means COVID patients healing and going home.
"It really validates the work that we do and that we make a difference," Prichard said. "Sometimes we have a clap out and celebrate."
Hospital officials urge people to educate themselves about vaccinations before saying no due to a lot of misinformation. Protections against the virus could not only help people survive a positive diagnosis but also help avoid a hospital stay.