GRAND RAPIDS, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Michigan’s first cases of COVID-19 were announced five years ago and the impact is still being felt by healthcare workers.
At Corewell Health in Grand Rapids, respiratory therapist Renee Gummere says it’s hard to believe five years have passed and they “still talk about COVID like it was yesterday.”
She says the hospital employees were the support system for family members of patients who were not allowed to have visitors, and she still remembers their faces, names, and room numbers.
Corewell Health medical director of epidemiology, Dr. Nicholas Gilpin, says it was a mixed bag how we reacted.
On the down side, Gilpin says we’re still struggling with staffing issues because some doctors and nurses suffered real trauma during the pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic also resulted in 100-thousand nurses nationwide leaving the profession.
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