This Is What a 16-Hour Hospital Shift Is Like for Me While Omicron Rages

In her first-person, personal essay “This Is What a 16-Hour Hospital Shift Is Like for Me While Omicron Rages,” Laura Sang, a hospital physician in Montreal, describes the conditions frontline workers faced. She writes: “A patient’s worried wife calls, asking for an update. I tell her we’ll call her back. All the staff are in this patient’s room, flipping him over for the night. Putting these ICU COVID patients on their stomach seems to help with recovery, I explain.”

While the characteristics of the Omicron variant and the availability of COVID-19 vaccines resulted in less severe illness compared to prior waves, its high transmissibility caused a surge in patient volume, intensifying strain on an already overburdened healthcare system. Due to shortages of personal protective equipment, Sang worked multiple consecutive shifts and made difficult decisions regarding treatment plans by carefully balancing benefits and risks. “I scramble to assess the need for intubation while simultaneously having to remind myself to step out as soon as possible to address those lab results. My pager wails incessantly while I finish assessing the patient — each critical beep a reminder that I am needed elsewhere in the hospital.” Her account demonstrates how even moderate changes in the virus’s profile can overwhelm healthcare capacity and underscores the necessity of public compliance with health guidelines to mitigate pressure on frontline workers.