I am a fourth-grade educator in our local area. I am also the partner of a nurse who works near one of your hotels in Vancouver. For obvious reasons, the last few weeks have been extremely challenging for our household.
My family is one of the unfortunate victims of COVID-19.
Last Wednesday, our uncle lost his battle with the virus. My partner has been witnessing people lose their battles or gravely fighting for their lives day in and day out. So, stress is at an all-time high.
Yesterday was the icing on the cake. My partner broke down and shared that her family at home should disperse and stay somewhere else because of the fear of transmitting the virus to us.
This includes our 16-year-old daughter.
As we scrambled to problem solve, we realized what a cumbersome task this would prove to be. While we have family we can go to, it doesn’t feel right to go there without having been quarantined for two weeks, knowing the potential exposure.
When I asked about the other nurses, she claimed, “We are all terrified. Terrified to bring this home to our families. One of my co-worker’s husband is a diabetic and should not have any exposure to COVID-19. Others are considering taking early retirement.”
These are real situations for our frontline workers.
They are carrying double the stress attempting to take care of us all and are faced with some very tough decisions, such as asking their family to leave them during a pandemic.
So, during this conversation, it became quickly evident that the real answer is to semi-quarantine the medical staff at the hospital. It has the least amount of impact. Dispersing my house alone would require three of us to find different places to stay, potentially exposing 10 to 15 other people. Many nurses have young children where that would prove to be much more difficult.
That’s where your establishment comes into play and the reason for this post. I have read that hotels around the country are opening their rooms up to people in need. An act of opening up your rooms to staff at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center would mitigate so many problems and stressors that are beginning to arise.
With that being said, I hope you take this proposition into consideration. My family, along with many others, would be incredibly grateful. I am reaching out to you in hopes we can solve this problem together. This is a solution that is for the better of our community and continues to support those who are working on the front line in direct contact with the virus.
