‘I’ll stay and help as long as needed,’ says a student from a Covid testing site

Tereza Šamalíková (in the front) with her colleagues
Photo: archive of T. Šamalíková
Saturday 24 October 2020, 8:00 – Text: Martin Višňa

Students of the Faculty of Health Sciences have been helping with Covid-19 testing at the Olomouc University Hospital since the spring wave of the epidemic. Tereza Šamalíková, a future nurse practitioner, explained what their work looks like, what kind of atmosphere is in the testing site, and how it may have changed since last spring.

 

The staff of the testing site at the largest hospital in Central Moravia currently works twelve-hour shifts, and the site is open from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. with a break for lunch. During this time, the staff takes turns in various activities: in addition to taking nasopharyngeal swabs, they handle the administration associated with the testing and ensure the operation of the site, e.g. having a sufficient stock of medical supplies, personal protective equipment and open channels for communication with hospital management.

 

“In the beginning, we did eighty to one hundred and twenty swabs a day, now we have to handle up to one thousand. I am not even able to estimate how many swabs I have done since spring,” says Tereza. “We feel the growing pressure from people. We still have a lot of incoming patients, who are nice to us, thank us and say that they admire us for the work we do. However, we are now getting more people who are upset or rude and unable to understand the pressure we work under. For example, one gentleman complained that he had to wait a long time despite seeing we were really busy. We were onboarding that day. It is necessary to ensure smooth continuation of the operations,” says Tereza adding that people are starting to realize that the virus is no fun, especially if they encounter the disease in their community.

She herself tries to be nice to patients, careful and gentle when doing swabs, always taking time to resolve potential conflicts and guiding patients step by step through the procedure. “I understand that someone may have simply a bad day, problems in family or at work. I am not easily intimidated but it helps to have a man on our team. It boosts the whole team confidence,” she hints at the fact that their predominantly female staff was joined by a hockey player and a future rescuer Libor Janků and the Vice-Dean of the Faculty for Health Sciences Jiří Stavovčík.

 

Tereza is not worried about her safety. She wears her personal protective gear consisting of a FFP2 class respirator, cap, shoe covers, protective coat, shield and gloves. Nobody on her team got infected since March when the testing site opened.

 

The testing was originally performed in a tent set up on a parking lot in front of the Faculty of Medicine. These days, patients with referrals and self-payers go to a nearby Allergology building. “It was quite difficult to say goodbye to the tent. It felt like home and we had more privacy there when we wanted to take a break and eat. Nowadays, we got used to our new place and got a support from technicians that made our administration easier, so processing a patient does not take that much time anymore,” compares Tereza. She also reminisces about the summer months when there were fewer patients and more time to relax. Tereza spent her free time in the mountains and by the water in the Czech Republic. It did not seem appropriate for her to go abroad.

She reportedly follows current news on the epidemic only to assess the number of people coming to their site to be tested. Besides her work, she also juggles her third year study workload. “Everybody is trying to accommodate the workload to our needs, even the bachelor’s thesis, so I am able to manage everything, although I am not able to meet the original deadlines. The work at the testing site is very important for my professional future. I am especially learning a lot about communication with patients. This work is different from our internship. We have to resolve any possible conflicts ourselves without a mentor. We also get to work with children and learn to communicate with them, to tune into their wave, so to speak,” explains the future nurse practitioner who would like to work at the University Hospital upon her graduation, ideally in the Cardiology Department.

 

But for now, she pledges her allegiance to the testing site. “I’ll stay here and help as long as it is needed and until the worst situation is over. We have a great team here and we try to be very nice to each other. We work hard, I would say extremely hard and go home tired but we do not go home in a bad mood,” concludes Tereza.

Andrea Drobiličová, the Deputy Director for Non-medical Occupations at the University Hospital and the Vice-Dean for Quality and Practice at the Faculty of Health Sciences:
“The testing site at the University Hospital in Olomouc commenced its operations on March 21. The students of the Faculty for Health Sciences helped us at the conception of the site and some of them have been helping since. Learning professional skills and effective communication with patients is a great practical experience for them. The staff at the testing facility follows the prescribed procedures and wears personal protective equipment that significantly reduces risk of infection. I would like to thank these young people for devoting their free time to helping at the Olomouc University Hospital.”

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