Today the New York Times presented a short film about life inside the ICU Unit at Valleywise Medical Center in Phoenix, much of the footage taken from cameras that nurses agreed to wear. The poignant film, by Alexander Stockman and Lucy King, shows the relentless and heartbreaking death that the nurses encounter daily on these units, standing in—both physically and emotionally—for families who cannot say goodbye to their loved ones in person. The film is both brilliant and devastating.
Here is the film:
I read hundreds of comments, many of them from nurses or doctors, who said it captures exactly what happens in these units. One doc who worked in a medical triage unit in Iraq said this was worse. There was some understandable rage at those, briefly shown in the film, who flaunt their maskless irresponsibility in the name of freedom. But for most of the commenters, there was simply bottomless admiration for overworked, underpaid nurses in understaffed units, who carry the burden (often hiding it from their families) for the whole country as death takes their patients. There is no doubt that these heroes will suffer PTSD from their year in this work.
I wept from beginning to end. Please watch it, for their sakes.