Nurses In The United States Are Forced To Resign Over Severe Shortages Of Medical Supplies

Frontline workers are wading through the pandemic nightmare to shield millions from losing their lives to it. While they’re not quite different from the rest, there’s a gnawing worry that looms over in the minds of several nurses before leaving to work -- will they return home safe?

The limited access to an already low stockpile of protective gear only makes matters worse as they are often divided on whether to fulfill a professional obligation or care for their personal safety. Healthcare staff continues to complain about muddled and constantly changing safety regulations. The perpetual negligence of the basic needs of the medical staff has compelled many to resign.

“It was an extremely difficult decision, but as a mother and wife, the health of my family will always come first,” said Kelly Stanton, a nurse armed with over 28 years of experience, while speaking to a media outlet about her exit that was a result of being ill-equipped with close to zero protective support. "In the end, I could not accept that I could be responsible for causing one of my family members to become severely ill or possibly die,” Stanton added.

Stanton is among the millions of nurses who’ve been pushed to resign owing to the pitiable conditions that they’re subjected to, as they get on to business— of treating over 1 million Americans who’ve been infected by COVID-19.

Just as dwindling supplies became a common occurrence; N95 masks were soon substituted with commercial-grade masks, surgical masks, and homemade masks, such as scarves and bandannas—all approved by the CDC. What needs to be known is that several nurses had put their lives at risk at the onset of the outbreak, as they were permitted to get on with treating patients with little protection. Result? Over 10,000 nurses were tested positive as per a preliminary survey conducted by the CDC.

Healthcare workers were instructed to get on with their service, with little assurance or evidence upon how the new guidelines could offer any protection from the highly contagious virus. “There had been warning that a pandemic was coming,” said Stanton as per the media outlet. “Hospital administrators, states and the federal government should have stockpiled PPEs. All three failed,” she added.