Mississippi nurses struggle to contend with soaring COVID cases

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• Judy Woodruff:

  The pandemic continues to take a heavy toll, with the United States averaging more than 2,500 deaths per day. In Mississippi, where just 50 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, hospitalizations have soared, intensive care beds are scarce, and there are simply not enough nurses on hand.

  Lisa Desjardins has the story.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Kelly Cumbest is the nurse manager in the emergency room at the Singing River Health System in Pascagoula, Mississippi, there on our Gulf Coast.

  Kelly, take us right into the E.R. What does it look and feel like right now?

• Kelly Cumbest, Singing River Health System:

  Well, today is a great example.

  We are congested and clogged up, lots of patients that are admitted that should be upstairs in the hospital and are still staying in the E.R. And it just slows everything down, and it gets — can be chaotic.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  What does that mean? Exactly how long are these patients who are waiting for a bed somewhere else, how long are they in the E.R., about?

• Kelly Cumbest:

  We're averaging about 24 to 36 hours. We have some longer, but we are very much the exception in Mississippi.

  Most of the hospitals in Mississippi have a several-day wait to get their patients out of the E.R.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  I mean, that's astounding to hear, that you're on the good side of that with a day or a day-and-a-half wait.

  So, help our viewers understand what's going on here. Can you talk about your staff shortage and where you are? How short-staffed are you at this point? What's going on?

• Kelly Cumbest:

  We have multiple closed units at all of our campuses, multiple closed ICU beds, MedSurg beds. We need staff.

  I have less than half of my allotted full-time positions filled. I have contract staff filling in a good portion of what's missing. I personally am working with about 75 percent of my shifts covered. And that's with forced overtime on pretty much everybody.

  So, we're working very short, and then we're taking care of more patients for longer hours than we should. It's a very bad scenario.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  What about vaccination rates? I know Mississippi is among the three states with the lowest vaccination rates right now.

  What does that mean in your emergency room? How's that affecting you?

• Kelly Cumbest:

  It keeps our — it keeps our patient visits up.

  The overall numbers of patients that are sick is higher. The number of patients that are positive is higher. And it's frustrating, because you could have less ill patients to take care of or fewer of them, and you don't.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  I mean, I hope that this round of COVID is peaking for you guys soon at least.

• Kelly Cumbest:

  It's — honestly, it's — the COVID is not bad.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  That's so interesting. So, it's a staffing issue. It's not a COVID issue as much.

• Kelly Cumbest:

  It's absolutely a staffing issue.

  I mean, COVID is very mild. There are some illnesses and there are some deaths. And it is terrible. And we're going to see that more detriment was done because of staff shortages than what COVID is doing right now.

  Back in the summer, it's a different story. But this right now, this is very much a staffing crisis. And patients are doing worse because of a lack of staff.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  So, I happen to be a proud daughter of a retired nurse. And that is one reason I know that, to be a good nurse, you have to have some tough skin. And I hear that in your voice.I know you have got to have a very particular kind of inner strength.

  So, I want to ask you, how is that strength holding up against all of this for yourself and for your fellow nurses?

• Kelly Cumbest:

  It's getting thin. It gets thinner.

  That inner strength gets very shallow. And there's less and less to pull from. It requires your team to get tighter and be more cohesive. But the worst part of it is the stress level that comes with not being able to give as good a care as you want to give.

  And the nurses that are — that I work with that are the best are the ones that are really, really concerned about their quality of what they do. And those are the ones that take the biggest emotional toll whenever they can't do everything that they want to do.

  We still give as good a care as we physically can. And, most days, it is as good as it's going to get anywhere. We are a very good system. We're a health system. We base ourselves on quality. And we always have. But whenever you run out of people and you run out of situations and time, then the resources just aren't there to do things.

  And so your quality can take a hit. And that emotionally hits the best of them the hardest.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  This is a question of nurses staying and where they stay. And I want to wrap up by asking you, why do you stay?

• Kelly Cumbest:

  I was born here.

  My parents are here. My in-laws are here. My kids go to school here. This is my family. This is my community. This is where I'm from. I know so many people. Both my parents were products of this town. And this is where I get my life from. So, this is what I'm giving back to.

  And that is honestly why I'm still here, is for the other people that are here, because life would be easier making, for me, even three or four times my net somewhere else. It would make my personal life maybe a little bit easier.

  But it's not the right thing to do.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Well, I know our viewers are glad that you were here with us today.

  Kelly Cumbest from the emergency room, the nurse manager there in Pascagoula, Mississippi, thank you so much.

• Kelly Cumbest:

  Thank you.