{"id":46072,"date":"2021-06-26T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-26T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/as-coronavirus-recedes-nurses-in-southwest-colorado-take-stock\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:29:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:29:19","slug":"as-coronavirus-recedes-nurses-in-southwest-colorado-take-stock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/as-coronavirus-recedes-nurses-in-southwest-colorado-take-stock\/","title":{"rendered":"As coronavirus recedes, nurses in Southwest Colorado take stock"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Mark
Mark Ritchey, a nurse in the ICU at Mercy Regional Medical Center, checks on a COVID-19 patient who is unconscious and intubated earlier this month. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

It\u2019s still here: That\u2019s the main message that four nurses in the Cortez and Durango areas wanted to share with the community about COVID-19.<\/p>\n

The arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine has helped communities shift into a new phase of the pandemic: an increasing sense of normalcy with loosening restrictions and fewer masks on the street. The virus, however, is still circulating, people are coming into hospitals with severe cases and community members still need to take care of each other, the nurses said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still a lot of COVID in our community,\u201d said Raiha Paewai, a nurse in the intensive care unit and emergency room at Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez. \u201cI don\u2019t know if the community realizes that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The daily number of new positive cases peaked in November for La Plata County residents and about a month or two later in Montezuma County, then dropped significantly. The numbers are low, but new cases are steadily appearing, according to health department data.<\/p>\n

In total, Montezuma County has seen 2,028 cases and 14 deaths during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

La Plata County county has had 4,124 total cases with 41 deaths among the cases during the pandemic, as of Friday.<\/p>\n

Nurses\u2019 days start with COVID-19 symptom screening and changing into hospital scrubs. They end with showers and decontamination procedures before seeing their loved ones.<\/p>\n

Nurses get close to their patients. They spend their 12-hour shifts checking on patients \u2013 sometimes every hour \u2013 helping them to the bathroom, giving medications and sharing information with families.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe may not be a family member, but we get incredibly attached to people in a short amount of time,\u201d said Leigh Morris, a nurse on the transitional care team at Mercy Regional Medical Center. \u201cIt is always hard to watch someone suffer. When someone can not breathe, they\u2019re terrified and they\u2019re suffering. I wish we had less of those memories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nurses, like other health care professionals, have worked at the center of a health crisis for months, in small communities where some people thought the novel coronavirus was a hoax and others wanted as many protective measures as possible.<\/p>\n

Three of the four nurses interviewed by The Durango Herald<\/em> were eager to get their vaccine when the time came. Lauren \u201cRen\u201d Smith, a nurse at Southwest Memorial Hospital, had not received the vaccine because she already had COVID-19 and has some natural immunity.<\/p>\n

Paewai estimated there were three or four patients with COVID-19 in the hospital during her shift at the end of May.<\/p>\n

Morris said she has at least one patient with COVID-19 every week. Mark Ritchey, a nurse in Mercy\u2019s ICU, has treated COVID-19 patients of all ages, from the 20s to the 80s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still living the pandemic on a daily basis. I\u2019m taking care of COVID patients today,\u201d Ritchey said in mid-May. \u201cIt\u2019s not like it\u2019s ended for us. Maybe burnout\u2019s the wrong word, but for us there\u2019s no end in sight. That\u2019s the frustrating part. It\u2019s mentally fatiguing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hot zone<\/div>\n

Ritchey, 51, spends his shifts at Mercy in a \u201chot zone,\u201d where COVID-19 patients are located. In the beginning, he said, there was a lot of fear.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t know what PPE (personal protective equipment) was really going to protect us,\u201d he said. \u201cIn my mind, there was a very real possibility that I could get sick and die from this.\u201d<\/p>\n

They rationed equipment because of shortages occurring nationwide. Gradually, more equipment became available and then COVID-19 vaccines. It was a huge relief, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish (the community) realized how sick people get. I\u2019ve been a nurse for over 20 years, and this is the sickest I\u2019ve seen people get in my life,\u201d Ritchey said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen H1N1 and other bad respiratory illnesses, and there\u2019s no comparison.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patients become profoundly debilitated, he said. Some people can be sedated and breathing with the help of a ventilator for a month. They\u2019re so weak, they can\u2019t lift their arms.<\/p>\n

\"Mark
Mark Ritchey, a staff nurse in the ICU at Mercy Regional Medical Center, leaves the room after checking on a COVID-19 patient who is unconscious and intubated. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Ritchey and others on the ICU team began keeping daily journals for COVID-19 patients. The long hospitalization, delirium and confusion could lead to post-traumatic stress disorder.<\/p>\n

Nurses would write words of encouragement or comments about their families. Others, like Ritchey, would note a timeline of clinical procedures and medical care.<\/p>\n

For Ritchey, sitting down to write the patient journal at the end of a shift was a way to decompress.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very meaningful to see with different families \u2013 how people would send giant poster boards with pictures \u2013 you could just feel the love and caring about these people,\u201d Ritchey said. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t have that personal interaction with a lot of them because they were so sick you couldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Raiha
Raiha Paewai, a nurse in the ICU at Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez, sits in her husband\u2019s art studio June 9 at their home outside of Cortez. She lived in the studio, separated from her husband, for months during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
\u2018That\u2019s all you can do\u2019<\/div>\n

For a year, Paewai, 61, lived in a garage in an attached studio. She spent time with her husband outside on their veranda, but always at a distance.<\/p>\n

At work she felt like she was in a bubble: Hot, heavy, full-bodied personal protective equipment, like medical gowns, masks and face shields, left her feeling separated from her patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo walk into that room for the first time with a patient who you knew had a deadly infection was very scary,\u201d said Paewai, who has been a nurse for 38 years.<\/p>\n

She remembered patients at Southwest Memorial Hospital who had COVID-19 and did well for weeks before relapsing, some seriously enough to be transferred to another hospital for more intense medical care. Or people suddenly improved, she said, recalling one person who went from being delirious for days to suddenly being fully alert.<\/p>\n

Other patients did not want to use the care and protective measures available to them, like COVID-19 vaccines and face masks, which have been politicized during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people that live a lifestyle that\u2019s been researched and known to be deleterious to their health, and that\u2019s their right,\u201d Paewai said. The mentality is, \u201cAlcohol and meth won\u2019t hurt me, but the vaccine will.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Raiha
Raiha Paewai, a nurse at Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez, sits with her husband, Keith Evans, on June 9 at their home. The two would have morning coffee about 8 feet apart outside during the pandemic until he received his vaccine. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Her job, Paewai said, is to try to help community members understand their options.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s all you can do,\u201d she said. \u201cGive them info, take care of them, show them you\u2019re caring and compassionate. At the end of the day, you hope they go home and think, \u2018maybe they\u2019re right and I should try to do something differently.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Lauren \"Ren\" Smith, a nurse at Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez, changes clothing on a newborn baby June 9 in a maternity ward at the hospital. Smith started her job as a nurse during the pandemic. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)
Lauren \"Ren\" Smith, a nurse at Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez, changes clothing on a newborn baby June 9 in a maternity ward at the hospital. Smith started her job as a nurse during the pandemic. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Graduating into a pandemic<\/div>\n

Smith, 30, started her first job as a nurse amid the pandemic in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt made me nervous. It\u2019s already a challenging profession to start off in. The learning curve was huge,\u201d Smith said. \u201cKnowing this big scary thing was out there was intimidating.\u201d<\/p>\n

She worked in the labor and delivery unit at Southwest Memorial Hospital while picking up shifts in the medical\/surgical unit to help with COVID-19 patients.<\/p>\n

One patient denied any possible contact with COVID-19. The medical staff members, wearing personal protective equipment as a precaution, cared for her for multiple days before finding out that multiple family members were sick.<\/p>\n

Lauren \"Ren\" Smith, a nurse at Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez, works in the maternity ward earlier this month. She said the mental health impacts of the pandemic, like feeling shame and guilt for contracting COVID-19, can be difficult for community members. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)
Lauren \"Ren\" Smith, a nurse at Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez, works in the maternity ward earlier this month. She said the mental health impacts of the pandemic, like feeling shame and guilt for contracting COVID-19, can be difficult for community members. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThere was this shame and guilt that goes along with being COVID-positive,\u201d Smith said. \u201cSome of the time, I feel like, people were afraid to own up to being symptomatic.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said there was a \u201cblame game\u201d that happened with COVID-19, part of the wider mental health impacts of the pandemic. Relationships could get awkward or tense, Smith said, particularly when political views got involved.<\/p>\n

Her hope: That the community could return to a level of trust in each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis virus can get very personal in a small community,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI hope we can learn to smile at each other again, without the need for masking up and being afraid of each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Leigh
Leigh Morris, a transitional care nurse at Mercy Regional Medical Center, takes medication to a patient May 28 at the hospital. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
\u2018Like war\u2019<\/div>\n

On the transitional care team at Mercy, Morris, 53, cares for patients who are not sick enough for the ICU but are too sick for regular care.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m working in the ICU today, and there\u2019s quite a few (COVID patients) in there now, and one of them is mine. I remember days when the whole unit was full of COVID patients,\u201d Morris said at the end of May.<\/p>\n

For a while, the hospital was where she felt most safe. She knew everyone would be wearing protective equipment and taking the pandemic seriously \u2013 that the staff members took care of each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like war. You don\u2019t want to leave your buddy,\u201d Morris said.<\/p>\n

When people come out of the ICU, her job is to help them rehabilitate, lifting people up both physically and mentally as they recover from the debilitating illness.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you are holding someone as they\u2019re dying and they can\u2019t breathe \u2013 that sticks out to you,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd to not necessarily have access to their family \u2013 that should not be anybody\u2019s experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Leigh
Leigh Morris, a transitional care nurse at Mercy Regional Medical Center, works on the computer May 28 at the hospital. She recalled days during the pandemic when her unit was full of COVID-19 patients. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The experience, Morris said, has taught her not to let little issues \u201cfester.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that I\u2019ve learned in this pandemic is that today is all you have,\u201d Morris said. \u201cIt has made me more conscious of making sure everyone knows I love them.\u201d<\/p>\n

She dreams of a time with no overtime hours, when she will have energy left to invest in her family instead of being drained by five or six 12-hour shifts in a row.<\/p>\n

She hopes the community will \u201ccome together and protect one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is still here. And we are so interconnected, more so than we know,\u201d Morris said. \u201cLittle actions of hand-washing and masks \u2013 those actions matter to people. \u2026 Sometimes, we\u2019ll see people on the street and think of them as a healthy person. That\u2019s not always the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Mark
Mark Ritchey, a staff nurse in the ICU at Mercy Regional Medical Center, kept a journal for COVID-19 patients and family members. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mark
Mark Ritchey, a staff nurse in the ICU at Mercy Regional Medical Center, enters a room to check on a COVID-19 patient who is unconscious and intubated. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Raiha
Raiha Paewai, an RN in the ICU at Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez, sits outside with her husband Kieth Evans. Paewai spent a lot of time on the patio as she lived separately from Evans during the pandemic until he was vaccinated. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Raiha
Raiha Paewai, an RN in the ICU at Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez, sits in her husband\u2019s art studio at their home outside of Cortez where she lived separately from her husband, Keith Evans, until he was vaccinated. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Lauren \"Ren\" Smith, an RN at Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez, works in the maternity ward at the hospital. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)
Lauren \"Ren\" Smith, an RN at Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez, works in the maternity ward at the hospital. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Lauren \"Ren\" Smith, an RN at Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez, works in the maternity ward at the hospital. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)
Lauren \"Ren\" Smith, an RN at Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez, works in the maternity ward at the hospital. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Leigh
Leigh Morris, a transitional care nurse at Mercy Regional Medical Center, gathers items for a patient May 28 at the hospital. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Leigh
Leigh Morris, a transitional care nurse at Mercy Regional Medical Center, checks on a patient May 28 at the hospital. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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