What’s it like to be an Arizona health care worker during COVID-19? Valley 101 digs in – AZCentral

Nasal swab test tubes sit read for COVID-19 testing at a drive through testing site hosted by the HeroZona Foundation in the South Mountain Community College parking lot in Phoenix, Ariz. on July 9, 2020. Tests were free and vehicles waited in a line that stretched nearly 1.5 miles from Broadway Road to Baseline Road along 24th street. Earlier in the week Arizona reached number one in the world for COVID-19 cases. (Photo: Thomas Hawthorne/The Republic)

Health care workers in Arizona are struggling throughthe burdens of a public health crisis that has hospitalized thousands of Arizonansand pushed emergency rooms and ICUs nearfull capacity.

With higher than usual patient-to-nurse ratios, stringent PPE protocols and looming fears over exposing their loved ones to the novel coronavirus, health care workers in Arizona are feeling tired, dejected and desperate for lawmakers and the public to take COVID-19 seriously.

"They've been trying to do two to oneICU patients to a nurse, but that's starting to be hard,"Miranda Dunkelbarger, an ICU nurse in Apache Junction, said. Some days shesaid she's had three patients at a time.

When New York emerged as a national hotspot in March and Apriland becamethe subject of eye catching stories about overwhelmed hospitals andmass graves for the dead, health care workers in Arizonawatched in both fear and trepidation How long before it came to Arizona?

By early August, the novel coronavirus infected more than 185,000 Arizonans and killed more than 4,000. In June and July, Arizonawas thrust in the national spotlight as a global hotspot, at one pointrecording a 25% positivity rate of tests conducted,a key COVID-19 metric.

This week's episode of Valley 101, a podcast from The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, follows Dr. BradDreifuss and nurse Miranda Dunkelbarger. Dreifuss isanemergency physician based in Tucson and co-founder of HCWHosted, a coalition dedicated to building pandemic preparedness plans for communities.

Producer Taylor Seely dives into what they're experiencing and what they want people to know about their work.

Related: What's it like when you or someone you know gets COVID-19?

The best way to listen is to subscribe to Valley 101 on your favorite podcast app, but you can also stream the full episode below.

NOTE: Valley 101 is intended to be heard. But we also offera transcript of the episode.There may be slight deviations from the podcast audio.

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