Photo by Saebree Gonzales
By Saebree Gonzales
The lives of healthcare workers across the country have changed within the passed year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In West Texas, healthcare workers have encountered numerous hardships as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has affected not only their profession, but their personal lives as well.
Ashleigh Jacquez, a registered nurse at Northwest Texas Hospital, said she was still in nursing school when the coronavirus outbreak began.
“I didn’t think it was that big of a deal,” Jacquez said, “and I was actually way more concerned about my schooling and my graduation.”
Jacquez said she regrets not taking the virus more seriously.
“I spent the majority of my first year of nursing on the COVID floor, so that really changed everything for me – and for my family too,” Jacquez said.
She described walking around the COVID floor of the hospital as “dark” and “heavy”. She said the sentiment of fear can be felt when walking into a patient’s room.
“All of that is just amplified by the fact that they can’t see what you look like because you’re wearing all of these masks, all of these respirators and the gown,” Jacquez said. “It’s very sad; it’s very fearful.”
Gabriel Domingo, a patient transporter at University Medical Center, said he remembers a time when he told an amputee patient he tested positive for coronavirus.
COVID-19 screening signage in front of University Medical Center off Indiana Ave.
“I told him that on the elevator, and at that time he was like, ‘that’s not right, that’s not right,’ and he almost started crying,” Domingo said. “Which I felt really bad about, and you know, I couldn’t really comfort him as much as I wanted to because you’re supposed to stay away.”
Samantha Ramos, a certified nursing assistant at Covenant Medical Center, said working at the hospital has impacted the way she spends time with her family.
“I didn’t celebrate Christmas with my grandparents or like, extended family,” Ramos said. “It was just my mom, dad and brother because I didn’t want to take the chance of any of my loved ones getting sick.”
Jacquez explained that although she loves her job, there are times when she feels lonely due to the pandemic.
Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital caregivers share their support. Image obtained from Mayo Newhall Hospital’s YouTube.
“You just go to work and then you come home,” Jacquez said. “You don’t want to go to the store–you don’t want to go do all the stuff where you might expose everybody else.”
According to covidactnow.org, a real time coronavirus tracker, Lubbock is considered to be at “medium risk,” which is on par with most of the nation.
At the time of the interview, Jacquez spoke about the decline in the infection rate at her facility.
She said she recommends people do their part in stopping the spread of the virus by continuing to social distance, wear masks, wash hands often and stay home when possible.
“I think the end is in sight, I think it’s important for people to keep powering through and see that there is light at the end,” Jacquez said. “I just hope people continue to do their part.”
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