Carolyn Jones's sympathetic look at today's emergency department nurses begins and ends in May of 2020 as COVID-19 has the nation in its grip. The framing device makes sense in light of the additional stress and strain the pandemic has brought into the lives of trained professionals already accustomed to late nights, long hours, and traumatic injuries. Nonetheless, it's the phenomenon that brings these hardened veterans to tears like nothing else, since they've witnessed so much death in isolation. Though Jones (Defining Hope, The American Nurse) travels to seven cities to speak with over two dozen nurses, she focuses primarily on Cathlyn Robinson, a nursing instructor at St. Joseph's University Medical Center in Paterson, New Jersey, where she and her staff attend to 450-500 patients per day.
Jones contrasts Robinson's relaxing life at home with her husband and three kids with her emotionally exhausting job. She has a knack for projecting calm competence, no matter the circumstance, which her patients probably appreciate. "We are the mirror of society," she states. Like the other nurses in the film, it frustrates her that emergency departments serve as primary care for patients who can't afford to see a physician regularly. As much as 50% of Americans fall into this category. When things become intolerable, they end up in the emergency ward, where nurses will treat some of them repeatedly. Jones also visits hospitals in Kentucky, Vermont, Texas, Oregon, and Michigan. Jen Hanks, a clinical education specialist at Dubuque's UnityPoint Health - Finley Hospital, cites the opioid crisis as another development that has made nurses' jobs more difficult, since it affects such a wide swath of the population. In the film, she sings John Denver's "Country Roads" to soothe a patient while he waits for pain relief to kick in. Two other subjects immigrated to the United States, including Khay Douangdara of Lexington's UK Albert B. Chandler Hospital, the first member of his Thai family to earn a college degree, and Peruvian-born Galina Chavez, whose Spanish-speaking skills put refugees at ease at Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas. The most unusual post belongs to Deidre Heinrich of Bend, Oregon's AirLink Critical care, who spends most of her time traveling to injured patients in remote areas.
The extra feature provides further context by way of a round table conducted over Zoom with Jones, Robinson, producer Lisa Frank, Rabih Saad from Detroit's Ascension St. John Hospital, and executive producer Terrence D. Sykes of the Emergency Nurses Association. Hanks discusses her personal experience with COVID-19, while Saad talks about Alex, the gunshot-wound patient he attends to in the film. Alex would later get in touch with the nurse to introduce him to his family and to thank him for his care. Though Jones doesn't go into detail about nurses' salaries or the consequences of career burnout, she makes a convincing case for the essential, underappreciated role they serve in the US healthcare system. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P.