WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:01.570 - Hi, I'm Ensign Mason Cobb, 00:01.570 --> 00:04.610 and I am an ICU Nurse aboard the USNS Comfort. 00:04.610 --> 00:09.550 I am a staff ICU Nurse down in the Intensive Care Unit. 00:09.550 --> 00:11.680 My job is to take care of the incoming patients 00:11.680 --> 00:14.071 from the City of New York and provide care 00:14.071 --> 00:18.220 to help try to offload the New York hospitals. 00:18.220 --> 00:23.220 Down in the ICU, there's actually four different ICU areas. 00:24.830 --> 00:26.960 So we have a couple that are delineated 00:26.960 --> 00:30.330 for suspected, or positive, COVID patients 00:30.330 --> 00:33.590 that we kinda group those patients into those ICUs. 00:33.590 --> 00:35.070 And then we have a couple of ICUs 00:35.070 --> 00:38.320 that we use for confirmed non-COVID patients 00:38.320 --> 00:40.410 in order to kinda keep 'em separated. 00:40.410 --> 00:42.850 We also have adequate amounts 00:42.850 --> 00:44.200 of personal protective equipment 00:44.200 --> 00:46.690 that we utilize at all times 00:46.690 --> 00:49.620 and then when we're taking care of COVID-positive patients 00:49.620 --> 00:50.970 we utilize the maximum amount 00:50.970 --> 00:53.160 of personal protective equipment. 00:53.160 --> 00:58.160 So we use gowns, goggles, head covers, 01:00.010 --> 01:03.120 face masks, particularly N95 respirator masks, 01:03.120 --> 01:06.440 when in negative pressure isolation rooms, 01:06.440 --> 01:10.900 or surgical masks when out in the regular ICU. 01:10.900 --> 01:13.340 Also when we're in the negative pressure isolation rooms 01:13.340 --> 01:17.770 we use scrubs and we also have booties over our shoes, 01:17.770 --> 01:20.390 so pretty much everything's covered head to toe. 01:20.390 --> 01:22.309 Well, working in the civilian world, 01:22.309 --> 01:24.290 we typically see very ill, 01:24.290 --> 01:27.300 patients that have chronic illnesses 01:27.300 --> 01:29.320 that drag on for long periods of time. 01:29.320 --> 01:32.180 So, you know I work in a very, 01:32.180 --> 01:34.920 I worked in a very high acuity setting 01:34.920 --> 01:38.240 with lots of high-tech devices and very sick patients, 01:38.240 --> 01:40.210 so bringing that into the military world 01:40.210 --> 01:42.162 it definitely prepares me to bring 01:42.162 --> 01:44.400 a lot of assets to the table 01:44.400 --> 01:46.729 with what I've experienced in civilian world, 01:46.729 --> 01:49.870 all the medicines and all the devices 01:49.870 --> 01:53.560 that we have available there in order to help prepare me 01:53.560 --> 01:55.050 for what we might see in the military 01:55.050 --> 01:58.320 because it's kinda unknown what's comin' through the door. 01:58.320 --> 02:01.250 Recently, we've set up the red and green zones. 02:01.250 --> 02:04.430 Basically, the hospital ship is not just a hospital 02:04.430 --> 02:08.000 it also has support facilities aboard, 02:08.000 --> 02:09.800 so we set up the red and green zones 02:09.800 --> 02:11.390 in order to make the red zones 02:11.390 --> 02:13.160 specifically the hospital side of the ship, 02:13.160 --> 02:16.040 and the green zone is the non-hospital side of the ship. 02:16.040 --> 02:19.280 That way we can help with contamination issues 02:19.280 --> 02:22.420 by sectioning off the red zones 02:22.420 --> 02:25.730 for hospital staff and the patients, 02:25.730 --> 02:28.540 and keepin' the green zones available for the support staff 02:28.540 --> 02:31.580 and non-hospital staff and no patients. 02:31.580 --> 02:33.955 So, it was set up in order, 02:33.955 --> 02:38.955 barriers were set up in order to keep staff 02:39.238 --> 02:41.230 where they need to be based on 02:41.230 --> 02:43.233 what their role is in the hospital ship. 02:44.480 --> 02:47.683 I started my nursing career at Sentara Heart Hospital 02:47.683 --> 02:50.270 back home in Norfolk, Virginia. 02:50.270 --> 02:52.317 I worked on a 10 bed cardiac ICU 02:52.317 --> 02:57.280 caring for very acutely ill, critically ill patients. 02:57.280 --> 02:59.200 Spent about two and a half years there 02:59.200 --> 03:02.693 before I decided to embark on my journey into the Navy. 03:03.802 --> 03:07.380 I started my Navy career at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth 03:07.380 --> 03:10.130 where I was shortly tasked to come out on the USNS Comfort 03:10.130 --> 03:13.523 and help provide relief, COVID-19 relief in New York City. 03:13.523 --> 03:18.523 I hope that we are providing relief to the City of New York. 03:18.620 --> 03:21.540 I hope that our efforts can be felt, 03:21.540 --> 03:24.560 and I hope that I'm makin' my family proud back home 03:24.560 --> 03:27.770 and that they stay safe as well through this pandemic. 03:27.770 --> 03:29.020 Proud to be a Navy Nurse.