Name of health worker: Mildred Kyogabiirwe
Occupation: Nurse
Masaka Regional Referral Hospital
A health workers fear and insecurity of dealing with ENT patients because they sneezed, coughed and wheezed.
I have not come across or handled a COVID-19 patient or suspect because I work in the ENT/ Eye ward. During the course of my duty, I could feel that everyone around had the virus since most of the COVID-19 patients were asymptomatic. I felt so bad and insecure dealing with ENT patients because most of them sneezed, coughed, and wheezed. It was a bad experience for me.
Working in the hospital environment in these times made me feel vulnerable and made me panic almost all the time. It made me feel as if I had contracted COVID-19.
I feared visiting my family, friends, and relatives so often for fear of spreading the virus to them.
The challenge was COVID-19 being mostly asymptomatic. We had some of our colleagues contract the virus and when they came back from quarantine, we continued working with them. But our constant worry was that we could also contract the virus at any time. We generally lived in fear.
In the Eye ward that I worked in, we made an effort to limit who enters in the treatment room. We ensured that one patient enters at a time while strictly observing the SOPs. Furthermore, we provided extra chairs so that they are spaced when they sit and we ensured that they sanitised most of the times.