Red Tape Ensnares Foreign Health Care Workers Trying To Help American Hospitals Amid Crisis

The New York Times: Hospitals Are Inundated. Foreign-Born Health Workers Are Blocked From Helping.
Visa and airline ticket in hand, a Filipina nurse named Maria checked in recently for her flight from London to the United States, where a job awaited her as an intensive care nurse at a North Carolina hospital on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis. But under the travel restrictions imposed by President Trump to help prevent new exposure to the virus, she was not allowed to board. “I was told that my visa is valid, and I would be allowed to travel once the restrictions are lifted,” she reported to the company that has been trying to bring her into the United States. (Jordan and Correal, 4/13)

The New York Times: ‘I Cried Multiple Times’: Now Doctors Are The Ones Saying Goodbye
The elderly coronavirus patient arrived at the Manhattan hospital extremely sick and rapidly deteriorating. Dr. Marissa Nadeau, an emergency medicine physician on the night shift, had little time to ascertain his wishes. The patient, gasping for breath but alert, made it clear he did not want to be intubated and put on a ventilator, which might have been his only hope for survival. Dr. Nadeau placed her hand on his shoulder, then used her phone to FaceTime with his family, telling them of his choice and holding up her phone so they could say what might be a final goodbye. (Goldstein and Weiser, 4/13)

The Wall Street Journal: In New Jersey Coronavirus Hot Spot, A Volunteer EMS Crew Works Alone
On emergency call after emergency call, Teaneck Volunteer Ambulance Corps member C.J. Levin transported Covid-19 patients, knowing each interaction increased his risk. The 25-year-old emergency medical technician worried about infecting his parents, whom he lived with in Teaneck, the center of New Jersey’s coronavirus crisis. But just as he was packing a bag and planning to move out of their home on March 18, he came down with body aches and a fever. He got tested that day, and the results came back positive. (De Avila, 4/12)

The Washington Post: Nurses Say Hospital Risks Infecting Patients With Coronavirus
The nurse was pregnant — and worried. But in mid-March, early in the covid-19 crisis, a manager at Moses Taylor Hospital in Scranton, Pa., assured her she would not be sent to the floor for patients infected with the deadly virus. The risks for expectant mothers were too uncertain. Two days later, she says, the administration changed course, saying the hospital needed “all hands on deck.” The pregnant nurse said she was sent back and forth between the “covid floor” and the neonatal intensive care unit, known as the NICU, where she normally treated vulnerable newborns and recovering mothers. (Butler, 4/11)

Modern Healthcare: Outlook For Nurse Supply And Demand Shifting Amid COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has catapulted shortages to the forefront of concerns regarding nurse staffing and quality of care. Until recently, worries surrounding the nursing shortage were mainly focused on a projection of the estimated workforce five to 10 years from now. (Caruso, 4/11)

ABC News: Police Chief Orders Probe In Handcuffing Of Black Miami Doctor On Front Lines Of Coronavirus Fight 
An African American doctor, who has been battling the coronavirus pandemic in his hospital and on the streets of Miami, was detained and handcuffed in front of his own home by a police sergeant as he loaded up his van with supplies he says he planned to take to the homeless. Dr. Armen Henderson, an internal medicine physician at the University of Miami Health System, said his biggest concern about the up-close encounter was that the Miami-Dade police sergeant was not wearing a protective mask when Henderson says the sergeant got "all up in my face," Henderson told ABC News on Sunday. (Hutchinson, 4/12)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: During Coronavirus Pandemic, New Orleans First Responders Can Stay At These Rentals For Free 
During the COVID-19 pandemic, New Orleans first responders and health care workers have put themselves — and by extension, their families or roommates — at great risk for the illness. “When [COVID-19] hit," says Jessie Senini, vice president of the New Orleans EMS Foundation, "it hit so quickly and unexpectedly that we didn’t realize that one of the needs was going to be quarantine measures for medics, first responders, cops, firefighters — all these people on the front lines being exposed.” The New Orleans EMS Foundation is a nonprofit that advocates and provides resources and support for the city's emergency first responders.  (Ravits, 4/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: Coronavirus Pandemic A Roadblock To Nursing Students Wanting To Join Health Care Workforce 
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s initiative to fortify the state’s health care work force was ambitious — a March 30 executive order establishing the California Health Corps — but nursing students are encountering imposing obstacles as they try to join the effort. Those concerns were outlined Friday in a letter from two nursing education groups to the Department of Consumer Affairs, which oversees the California Board of Registered Nursing. The letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Chronicle, seeks revisions in the licensing requirements for nursing students to graduate. (Kroichick, 4/12)

Boston Globe: As Coronavirus Fight Progresses, A Focus On First Responders’ Mental Health 
Like health care professionals everywhere, Dr. David Finn’s colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital have always had to deal with a certain level of on-the-job stress: worrying about patients and their loved ones, questioning decisions, being in the presence of death. But lately, with the novel coronavirus infecting more people who make their way to the hospital, those anxieties are amplified. (Lotan, 4/12)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Coronavirus In Wisconsin: Mental Health Workers Stretch To Give Care
Health experts say it’s too early to tell how extensively the pandemic is impacting mental health but there are already indications of rising symptoms of anxiety and depression, and more calls to support lines. At Children’s Hospital, a greater portion of youth coming to the emergency room are being treated for self-inflicted injuries, compared to this time last year, according to Amy Herbst, vice president of mental and behavioral health. (Linnnane, 4/13)