“All we were trying to do was stop the spread of the virus,” X therapist says. In her 20s, X is an occupational therapist in a nursing home of approximately 300 residents in Staten Island, New York. From March, they created two COVID-19 units and during the peak of the virus, the nursing home was facing up to five deaths per day. X therapist tells me, “Every time I turned on the TV, it seemed nursing homes were being vilified.
There was so much ridicule, but no aid or solutions to the conflict we were facing. The residents didn’t go out- the virus was brought to them. People on social media talked about residents as if they were meant to die as if they aren’t human beings too.” Inside the day-to-day of X therapist new normal, this is what it’s like to be a medical professional in a nursing home during a pandemic. X therapist role as an occupational therapist changed drastically.…
