Nurses life became more challenging in COVID; 90 days in the life of a nurse

By Mehboob Inamdar

Aurangabad, May 11:

“Novel Coronavirus has made life more challenging to nurses than other professionals.

This is not a situation in hospital, but also in family and society as they have to work in the wards of COVID which has created havoc across the world,” Anusaya Ganesh Bhosale, a nurse working in District Civil Hospital (DCH), spent 90 days and nights away on duty from her family in the first pandemic wave.

Anusaya Ganesh Bhosale said that life was as usual until February 2020. “With the spread of COVID, it changed my lifestyle. I had duty in the COVID ward of DCH. Since people had much fear and anxiety about it, they would treat me differently in my housing society when I returned from duty. I decided to stay in a hostel for the safety of my family and society members. I sent my children to my in-law's house and started staying hostel. I was worried for my two boys (the first is 15 and the second is 13 years old), health and vice-versa. Some times I would think whether I would meet my children and husband again or not,” she said. She said she could not forget those 90 days of staying away from family.

She is a native from Latur and did her postgraduate in Nursing from J J Hospital (Mumbai) in 2005.

“I chose the nursing profession because I like Science. My parents wished that I should do D T Ed, but could not do that because my family could not afford the fee of that course. Initially, I faced many problems in the profession. I got my first posting in 2006 at a rural hospital in Shengseon (Hingoli).

I was transferred to the sub-district hospital of Gangapur in 2008 and Rural Hospital of Bidkin in 2016. I was transferred to DCH in 2019,” she asserted.

Anusaya said that people have high hopes while working in rural areas. She said she was happy that she gets blessings while serving patients.

“My family members specially my husband Ganesh supports me a lot. I feel that I can do something for society by serving patients. When a patient specially a senior citizen, recovers and discharge, I become very happy at that time,” she said.

Anusaya said that she needs to stay in isolation at home if she gets continuous duty for two or three days at COVID for the safety of her family members. “To remain in PPE kit for eight hours is not an easy thing, but when I think of safety other people, it is nothing. I have to sanitise my clothes and everything on returning home,” she added.