Nurse: 'Stay home this Thanksgiving so you don't have to ring in the New Year with me'

(FOX 9) - Nurse Kelley Anaas joined Governor Tim Walz and health officials in giving the media an update on the COVID-19 situation in Minnesota, urging residents to keep following guidelines and consider staying home this Thanksgiving.

Anaas, works at the COVID-19 ICU at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. During her speech, she stressed the need for community members to maintain social distancing and avoid large gatherings, saying that "your ability to sip a beer at a party with friends is not more important than children going to school, than your friend’s parents, than your ability to celebrate the holidays with your grandmother next year."

Full speech:

"I have had the privilege of serving the people of Minnesota and its neighbors as an RN for 12 years, the last six in Intensive Care and the last eight months at the COVID-19 ICU at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis.

I’m speaking to you today coming off a grueling 32-hour work weekend, so if my remarks seem emotionally charged, it’s because they are. For nurses, this pandemic has taken an emotional toll. Up until nine months ago nurse was my only professional title. Suddenly, I earned a new designation – frontline worker. Honestly I’ve always found this name laughable as it implies that there’s a second line of us waiting in the wings. Minnesota, we are your only line. Healthcare workers are showing up in waves that we’ve never been called to do, and we keep showing up because that’s what we do. 

But, there are ways to make this so much better for everyone. I watched this weekend as my ICU filled up with critically ill COVID-19 patients. Suddenly, we were transferring the remaining patients not requiring enhanced airborne isolation to other Intensive Care Units in the hospital to make room for COVID patients flowing in from all corners of the state. Those patients we made space for waited hours for an ambulance or a medical helicopter to take them to us from Stacy, Brainerd, Bemidji - everywhere around the state of Minnesota. We intubated more patients than we transferred out to the medical floors, and we said goodbye to patients we have been caring for for weeks. 

Yes, these things have always been part of my job and yes to a certain degree I signed up for the role I’m filling today. But, I did that with the trust in my employer, elected officials and community that I serve would be there to show up and protect me. Nurses have long been one of the most trusted professions in our country, so Minnesota lawmakers, mask-wearers and COVID deniers, I’m here today to say you need to believe nurses when we tell you these things are happening and trust what we are asking for in support, so that we can best serve our patients – you and your loved ones. 

Our hospital beds are not solely occupied by those being vanquished by this virus. People did not stop having strokes, heart attacks, car accidents and slipping on the ice because a pandemic showed up on our doorstep. And there’s no government mandate to make those things stop. My colleagues all over the state are caring for those infected with this virus at the same time they are caring for patients in the hospital for other reasons. The subject of inadequate PPE may have left the public consciousness in May, but that is still a reality for health care workers every day. Nurses are waiting as long as anyone else for the results of their own COVID tests using their own PTO to make up for their missed shifts at work. Our charting modes and electronic medical records are being shifted to crisis charting, which is putting nurses’ licenses on the line when it comes to documenting our life-saving work. 

The person standing behind you in line at the grocery store might be a nurse, a respiratory therapist, a nursing assistant, a physician. You or a loved one might need that person someday soon, and you want to be sure we can be there for you. Mask up and keep your distance.

We need to ensure that there will be a bed and a nurse for patients who need it by halting nonessential surgeries that require an in-patient stay. Given the wide community spread of this virus we need further limitations on visitors to the hospitals. We need supplies of PPE to be available to hospitals and skilled nursing facilities first. We need increased availability of rapid testing for healthcare staff. If professional athletes can have access to this, then it’s possible. It’s a matter of reprioritizing our resources. Speaking of priorities, if you have symptoms of this virus or a known exposure, stay home. Stay home anyway. Keep those that you live with home, too. Your ability to sip a beer at a party with friends is not more important than children going to school, than your friend’s parents, than your ability to celebrate the holidays with your grandmother next year. Please, Minnesota, stay home this Thanksgiving so that you don’t have to ring in the New Year with me.