Around the world, Covid-19 has had the most severe impact on the elderly.
New Zealand is no exception, after several fatal outbreaks in facilities around the country, and more recently two deaths in the South of people living in aged residential care facilities in Otago or Southland.
Radius Fulton Dunedin nurse manager Holly Dunbar has not had to manage an outbreak in her 93-bed South Dunedin facility yet, but the rigmarole involved in going to work now, as opposed to before the pandemic, speaks to how difficult that task is.
"It’s like night and day," she said.
"At the moment we are doing rapid antigen testing on all staff and all visitors before they enter the facility, we are all scanning in and being screened and having temperature checks and things like that.
"It’s like an alternate universe, and we would never have predicted a year ago that we would still be ramping up our testing again."
It is not only a strange new world for the nurses at Radius Fulton but also the residents, many of whom have cognitive difficulties and struggle to understand the need for the routines which ground their lives to change.
"It is tough on them and the thing we nurses have learnt from previous lockdowns is that they miss their friends and their families and it is important to emphasise the strong relationships they have with other residents," Ms Dunbar said.
Radius Fulton has matched up residents into pods which share common spaces at allocated times so they do not miss the social interaction they crave but which also places them at risk.
"When people don’t have their social needs met it also impacts on their physical wellbeing so we would see more falls and pressure injuries and things like that," Ms Dunbar said.
"So we have been working really hard, in so far as it’s possible, to keep things as normal as they can be."
Working in aged residential care was a challenging role at the best of times, but the added pressure of knowing that they could unwittingly place their residents at risk if they arrived at work with undiagnosed Covid-19 weighed heavily on nurse’s minds, Ms Dunbar said.
"No-one wants to be that person and I know that everyone comes to work wanting to do their best and following all the procedures we possibly can.
"I feel fortunate at Fulton that we have an amazing team who have been through some tough times together and everyone is pulling together really well," Ms Dunbar said.
When something went wrong in aged care, such as a Covid outbreak, it made the headlines, but the good work being done by nurses and other staff could be forgotten, she said.
"I think we don’t celebrate well the things that do go well and a huge amount of work is going on in all facilities to keep Covid out."
