During one of my clinicals with UNE, I was working at Maine Medical Center caring for an older gentleman who was no longer in need of hospital care but had no other place to go. Due to the fact that our unit was considered an outbreak unit because of a positive case of COVID-19, there was no assisted living or other healthcare facility that would take him. He had tested negative and was fully vaccinated for COVID-19 yet was still being denied the health care that he needed because of his location in the hospital. Being an older gentleman in the condition he was in, the hospital was not able to release him home as he needed more care than that, so the decision was made to keep him in the hospital until the assisted living/long term care facility would accept him. Also, because he was retired without a steady financial income, he expressed his worry about the financial burden it would put on him and his family being stuck in the hospital for so long with no choice but to stay. During this experience of caring for this patient, I couldn’t help but think about his family and the stress of having their loved one in what was considered an outbreak unit, the feeling of anxiety to get him to a new facility, and the financial burden of having an unnecessary hospital stay. I also thought about the fact that he definitely is not the only patient in this situation during this pandemic, there were probably a lot of people that had to deal with this especially when we didn’t know much about COVID-19.

After caring for this patient and truly understanding his situation, I was empathetic towards him and understood why the situation was happening, but felt that the policy creators for the facilities could do better in making sure everyone has access to the care that they need and not charging people for hospital stays that are not necessary. I feel that the policies of the facilities could change for the better especially as our knowledge and defense against this virus is improving.  Since this patient was fully vaccinated and testing negative, I feel that is enough evidence to prove that he would not bring the virus into the facility, however if they still felt they needed more evidence, they could have the patient self-isolate with caregivers wearing proper PPE for COVID-19 for 2 weeks which would then be plenty of evidence that this patient does not have COVID-19. I felt that the healthcare system in general could do better for this patient, but all I could do was provide the best care I could as a student nurse. I felt my position student was ineffective in helping this man in his situation, but I know as a nurse that I can advocate more for my patients and hopefully figure out better solutions to situations such as his.