Nursing Amid Covid Crisis – Featuring Ms. Christine Teodones-Custodio

A lot of people nowadays do not understand the hard work of our healthcare personnel. Some think that these people in frontline should feel lucky for they are employed and having a stable income in these trying times. What others do not see are the sacrifices they have to take just to fight for a little wage and save other people’s lives while risking their own and their loved ones’.

As the cases are on rise and patients keep on coming in, our healthcare system is now being challenged gravely. We asked Ms. Christine Teodones-Custodio, to give her insight and share her experience as she continuously withstand the demands of this pandemic.

“As a nurse in a COVID hospital, mahirap talaga! We work long hours a day, but it is not the physical work we are tired of. We are tired of seeing the same devastating scenario every day. We are tired of seeing increasing number of cases and seeing all those anxious looks from all the patients, symptomatic or not. This is not a question anymore of how hot it is working under a multiple-layered PPE and tight gears or how we endure hunger, thirst, pee or how are we going to protect ourselves from the virus but it is a question of how can we help more. Being a nurse sometimes pushes you to be selfless; you want to give more kahit na alam mo you are already on the verge of breaking down. What I see every time I look at my patients, are my parents. Ayoko mangyari sa kanila to. So, what I feel is I need to help more but the number of the patients are overwhelming, hindi natatapos. So paano? Sometimes we feel lost and depressed. Gusto mong tumulong pero hanggang dito ka lang. This is what we are tired about. Tired of seeing people die every day. Tired of wanting to cater everyone but we simply cannot. I hope everyone will understand how grave our situation is. I hope everyone will cooperate and stay home not for us but for their own parents, kids and to those who are important to them.”- Christine Teodones-Custodio

Nurse Tin

Christine works as a full-time nurse at Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, one of the leading institution for COVID-19 and a part time resuscitation instructor at Largado Safety and Rescue Training Center, an American Heart Association international training center. She was also awarded as 4th runner-up Ms. Health 2019.