RN REFUTES "HERO" STATUS for EBOLA RNs and MDs

By Helen Borel, R.N.,Ph.D.

Introductory Discussion
[On November 17, 2014, I sent this refutation (see my
article, way below) to opinion@nytimes.com from which
I never received a response. Nor did The New York Times
ever discuss this topic in its newspaper, nor at their online
venue...an imperative angle missing from the vast 
arenas of medical journalism and general journalism.

[Therefore, since I believe Americans and citizens of the
world everywhere have a right to know the truth about just 
what infectious disease practices comprise in the 
professional lives of  EVERY NURSE AND DOCTOR 
ON THE PLANET, I’m hereby exposing this truth.

[And, as a bedside practitioner of Nursing in various Manhattan,
NYC hospitals for years, I know firsthand what I’m talking
about...unlike those worshipful “Ebola journalists” who forgot
to ask simple and crucial questions, such as:
1. “What about all other serious and deadly infections?”
2. “Everyday, how do RNs and MDs protect themselves while
providing quality care in hospitals, clinics, ERs, operating rooms,
doctors’offices, school nursing venues, etc.?”
3. “Are all worldwide healthcare professionals HEROES AND
HEROINES? Or have you simply been doing your jobs, the ones
you signed on for when you chose your careers?”
4. ”What depth of knowledge about the causes and treatments
of various infectious diseases do Nurses and Doctors have?”
5. ”What are routine hospital procedures for various deadly
infections not caused by the Ebola virus?”
6. ”How does a Hospital RN handle an infectious disease
patient?”

[Finally, Number 7. Ask any RN or MD: “Does your 
bedside care and treatment of patients with deadly 
infections make you HEROIC?” I’m sure the answer to this
one is a resounding, “No, it’s simply a part of my job...and I
know what I’m doing...and I know how to protect the infected
patients, other patients, fellow professionals, myself and my
family and friends by following mandated protocols.”

[Why didn’t our journalists dig for the whole truth instead of
glorifying a couple of self-serving folks who fell into the trap
of self-worship...at the peril of the larger society?

[Herewith, then: The truth to counter the “mantle of glory”
that superficial journalism has bestowed, foolishly, on health
professionals whose daily work with an unfortunate infectious
disease (Ebola) does not significantly differ from the everyday
work of doctors and nurses everywhere working with all
manner of deadly infectious diseases on Earth.

[Ask any Nurse or Physician, in any Healthcare Community
or Hospital Setting and you’ll learn the real truth about dire
infections and their common treatments and handlings in all
healthcare institutions everywhere.]


THE EBOLA RN and THE EBOLA MD 
ARE NOT HEROIC 
(This is the article I proposed to The New York Times)

By Helen Borel

At the outset, before I shine a different light on the brouhahas
stirred up by the Ebola-exposed Maine nurse and the Ebola-
exposed New York City physician, let me declare: There's 
nothing "heroic" about medical people taking care of 
patients with infectious diseases!  

Attaching the honorific "hero" to RNs and MDs who take care
of patients with various contagious diseases overseas exposes
the pitiful void in journalists' reporting, even among medical
journalists...like Sanjay Gupta, MD and Elizabeth Cohen,
PhD...of what comprises the best Nursing Care and Medical
Care in every hospital here and abroad.

Dr. Gupta surely knows everything I'm about to convey here;
but I don't know Dr. Cohen's level of clinical knowledge.
Even 'though a medical reporter, I don’t know if she has any
healthcare credentials at all.

In any event, neither of these latter have declared the most 
obvious known to all healthcare clinicians on Earth -
 We ALL take care of patients with highly infectious, 
often fatal, diseases every day in every conceivable
clinical circumstance you can imagine.

Every RN and every MD in every hospital in the
United States, and in every hospital the world over, is
profoundly educated, clinically practiced and acutely
alert on a moment-to-moment basis about simple infections,
life-threatening infections, fatal infections - bacterial, viral,
fungal, prion-caused (Creuzfeldt-Jacob/Mad Cow disease)...
and about their prevention, treatment, survivability 
and transmissability.

My own experience caring for 
patients with severe and fatal 
infectious diseases is vast and varied.
Such a wide variety of these have I nursed from acute illness to
health, in most cases; but some, too ill, succumbed.  Looking
back, I’m amazed at the scope of infectious disease challenges
I was faced with as a hospital RN. Some of these diseases were
(and still may be) awful in their siege on my patients’ immune
defenses and on their sufferings. Many are still deadly infections.

I will list, here, but a  few of the kinds of 
infectious disease cases I was challenged to provide 
nursing care for.  They’ve included: Typhoid Fever 
(Salmonella typhi); Encephalitis; Meningitis;
Shingles (Herpes zoster) of the face, eye and brain;
and in the years before the Sabin and Salk vaccines,
Infantile Paralysis (poliomyelitis) caused by the
poliovirus which left patients (most were little children)
paralyzed and in respirators (iron lungs),  unable to
breathe for themselves as well as facing a wheelchair-
bound future in most cases.

All of these patients required the kind of nursing care in which I,
the RN, would be in continuous contact with the patient’s needs...
feeding, changing dressings, bathing, encouraging, exercising,
administering medications, giving intravenous fluids and other
treatments, following up on physiotherapy orders and medical
prescriptions....All these patients were 
DEATHLY ILL AND CONTAGIOUS!!!

And in the 80s, before everything was known about it
and others feared it, I volunteered to take care of
AIDS patients as a private duty nurse in hospitals.

I never got sick from any of these cases.  Nor did I ever
transmit any of these afflictions to any other patients, colleagues,
family members. Not to anyone. We were taught our anatomy,
physiology, and every other related medical subject and were
steeped in our training in general patient care.

Likewise, we were in-depth taught and experienced in
everything about all known contagious diseases and how
to protect ourselves and everyone else when we’ve been
in contact with such patients.  All utilizing Isolation
Technique which all RNs and MDs use everywhere in the
world every day.

In fact, a major  reason for 
the existence of hospitals 
in the first place is to prevent, 
anticipate, treat and cure infections.

The above clinical experiences give me the authority to discuss
my disgust at the selfish behaviors of the “Ebola-exposed” nurse
and doctor in a rational way, and unlike anything any “journalists”
provided to the media.

Very important, too, another part of Nursing Care beyond
the physical is the emotional well-being of our patients.
It's our job to create a healthy mental atmosphere for our
patients which is known to help their physical illnesses heal more
rapidly.  In this regard, the publicity-hungry nurse who focused
on herself forgot about the myriad of her co-professionals who
do the same infection-control and treatment work daily
throughout the United States...and worldwide, including in Africa.

And she ignored the distress of her community and the wider
American citizenry worrying about the "viral menace" she so
valiantly fought, she thought, regardless that her ego-mania
put the spotlight on her and forced communities to provide her
legal and other resources, instead of them focusing on what to
do should the Ebola virus become something to combat here,
on what to do for the entire community - not just  for
nurse-narcissist.

She, instead added foolishly to public worry (and wasted valuable
governmental focus and resources).  This is a disgrace.  Shame on
her for smudging our profession with her selfish incapacity to take
three weeks off, read some books, request what additional
accommodations she needed to make herself more comfortable,
and quietly endure the short inconvenience to achieve peaceful
emotions in vast numbers of our citizens.

I rest my case about her unconscionable behavior...and the same
applies to that Manhattan MD who actually was Ebola-contagious
while he was running around the city bowling, eating out, in
contact with his girlfriend, etc....requiring hospitalization later.

Instead of Nurse Complainer and Doctor Thoughtless
arriving from Africa like conquering heroes in their own
minds, what they both needed to do as quality Nursing and
Medical Professionals was to simply have compassion for the rest
of society.  Whatever they did over there is easily 
comparable to what every nurse and doctor do here in 
America every day - treat infection, prevent infection...
and also minimize worry in the vulnerable.

Nurse Complainer and Doctor Thoughtless treated
infection over there in Africa; however, preventive precautions
and emotional empathy were lacking in both for their American
compatriots.

© Copyright 2014, 2015 Dr. Helen Borel. All rights reserved.

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