Israelis get the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine at Clalit Health Services . Picture : JACK GUEZ / AFP
Rapid response
Nurse recounts life inside Israel ’ s rapid COVIDvaccine rollout .
By Conor Burke
As Australia ’ s COVID-19 vaccination rollout got off to a sluggish start , other nations made great strides in vaccinating their population .
Israel is one , and since the start of its vaccination drive in December 2020 , about 57 per cent of Israel ’ s population of 9 million have now received at least one dose of the vaccine and more than 48 per cent of people are fully vaccinated .
Healthcare professionals have been vaccinating 6000 people per day in some instances , and with Israel ’ s nurse numbers one of the lowest in the OECD ( 5 nurses per 1000 population compared to Australia ’ s 11.9 ), this is a serious achievement .
But for a country that is in a constant state of disaster readiness , perhaps we should not be surprised .
“ I work normally in oncology and a few years ago , we had the sirens and the rockets coming , and we needed to tell our patients , ‘ Go to the bathroom , because you cannot go to the bunkers , because you are immunocompromised ,” Martina Paletova tells Nursing Review .
“ I ’ ve worked in Africa , and Canada , Europe . I ’ ve never experienced something like that . Here it ’ s just a part of life . You are used to it .”
Martina , originally from the Czech Republic , says that constant military preparedness has paved the way for such a smooth rollout .
“ I have many friends in Europe , my family is in the medical profession , and they were
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discussing how to do their list of freezers for the Pfizer [ vaccine ], and how many papers they need to sign , and that the doctor needs to take the blood pressure of the patient and ask for medical history , and everything .
“ My friend , she ’ s a doctor and she ’ s managing to vaccinate three people in an hour . I ’ m a nurse , I did 20 here in Israel .”
Martina says that Israel ’ s detailed digital record keeping is key to the speedy process ; allowing her to vaccinate someone in two to three minutes .
Vaccinating 20 people an hour sounds pretty taxing I remark . Compared to working on an oncology ward or a COVID ward , where Martina has spent much of the last year , it is quite nice she replies .
“ People come and they are excited . I had people hugging me , telling me , ‘ Thank you .’ They were so happy . It was amazing . It was 15 hours work , but I saw so many happy people ,” she says .
“ It was an incredible feeling when people tell you , ‘ Oh , so now I can see my grandkids .’ ‘ Oh , now I can travel and see my mother .’ You forget that you are tired . Martina volunteered to work on the COVID ward during Israel ’ s second wave and said it was an eye-opening experience .
Compared to her oncology role , the lack of intimacy with patients was a struggle , on top of the long hours and lack of what she calls “ self-care tools ” that would normally be available to her .
“ I think the worst was that the patients were alone . In oncology , they have the families , they can come in . In the Corona department , the patients are really alone ,” she says .
“ While in oncology I usually have four , five people for a long time . I get to know them . Here , I could suddenly have 40 people . I couldn ’ t even remember the names . They didn ’ t know who I am , because they couldn ’ t see me properly .
“ There were many nights I slept at the hospital , crashing wherever I found a spare bed ,” she said .
“ On the days I could make it home , I would either have to walk 5km to and from the nearest bus shelter or pay for a taxi , given that we were in lockdown and transportation was limited .
“ I spent more money on public transport than I earned and constantly worried about disease transmission as I worked for a hospital .
“ All of my self-care tools like gym , travelling and chatting over coffee with friends were taken away from me , and the fact that I couldn ’ t see family and friends made life hard .
“ I was burning out towards the end . I had to push incredibly hard just to take a few days off .”
Martina ’ s experiences over the last year have inspired her to further her education and her PhD , which she is completing as an overseas student at CQU , is titled : Who is taking care of the nurse during the world pandemic ? And she wants to use this time to develop tools to help nurses in the future .
“ During 2020 , I saw talented nurses break down from exhaustion and question their actions , before ultimately leaving the profession that they worked so hard to enter ,” Martina said .
“ I know there are many studies out there about moral injury during a pandemic , but I want to develop fatigue prevention tools so that nurses like me can build resilience ,” she says . ■