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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 13, 2021)
The BulleTin • Wednesday, OcTOBer 13, 2021 A3 LOCAL, STATE & REGION Overwhelmed by pandemic, health care workers turn to the hospital chaplains BY BRYCE DOLE east Oregonian P ENDLETON — The pa- tient had been fighting in the intensive care unit for weeks, and the nurse had grown attached. He was younger than most COVID-19 patients admitted to CHI St. Anthony Hospital in Pendleton. It was August, and the delta variant was rag- ing through Oregon, filling hospitals with patients and ex- hausting health care workers. A record number of Uma- tilla County residents who contracted the virus died that month. He was one of them. Ann Marie Hardin, a hos- pital chaplain, was called in to help with the next steps, tell- ing the family and the funeral home. She turned a corner and saw the nurse, who burst into tears and fell into Hardin’s arms. “She felt that it was such a waste,” Hardin said. “The pa- tient was young. Had the pa- tient been vaccinated, there potentially could have been a different outcome. And that was really hard to pro- cess for her. She felt that it shouldn’t have had to happen. He shouldn’t have had to die. And she looked to me as a safe place to lay some of that sad- ness.” Hardin did what she has done throughout the pan- demic — she listened. The nurse vented to Hardin about things she knew few would understand but her. “We had a conversation about how hard this was for her because she had gotten attached to the patient,” said then it’s going to get better,’” she said. “It’s an acknowledg- ment that we’re just working through this and doing the best we can do, one patient at a time, one day at a time.” She called her job a privi- lege, but one that comes with responsibility. “The notion of saying something wrong and making something worse is terrifying,” she said. “But it is an incred- ible privilege to help bring a bit of balance and healing into their life.” She joined the hospital as an on-call chaplain in 2019. A math teacher at Blue Moun- tain Community College, she felt compelled to help health care workers through their day-to-day work while hear- ing stories from her husband, an emergency department nurse at St. Anthony. Now, she works evenings and weekends. “I’m not somebody who likes to be bored,” she said. Throughout the pandemic, Ben lonergan/east Oregonian she has stood by as infection Ann Marie Hardin, a hospital chaplain, poses for a portrait Friday in the has ebbed and flowed. She has listened to health care workers chapel at St. Anthony Hospital in Pendleton. whose patients improve and Hardin. “And I was reminded derstand on at least a level decline over weeks of treat- that I do this job to try to help what they’re dealing with and ment, and always in isolation, our nurses through these hard what they’re going through,” away from their families. moments.” Hardin said. “Because we’re She told of a nurse whose As one of St. Anthony’s there, and we see it.” patient had to go on comfort three chaplains, Hardin’s job She listens in the hallways care, a stage where a nurse is to walk around the hospital and at the nurses stations as helps soothe a patient at the and talk to health care work- the staff relate the stress of end of life. The nurse had ers, helping them find solace their jobs. She said health care given the last dose of medica- and make sense of what they workers can often be reluctant tion, and she came to Hardin witness. It’s a job several health to seek help themselves, so she struggling to cope. care workers say has become enjoys finding them and giv- “She had almost felt like especially critical as they en- ing them an opportunity to she had killed the patient,” she dure the pandemic’s toll. talk, even if all they utter are said. “So I suggested to her “I do think chaplains are sarcastic remarks: that, rather than think of it some of the only people that “I had one girl tell me, ‘It’s that way, she should think of it nurses can talk to who do un- going to suck for a while, and as giving the gift of a peaceful passing.” And over the past two months, the staff have only grown more tired and anx- ious, she said. “The energy level has dropped,” she said. “People are tired. They’re feeling stressed, and there’s a lot of worry right now because of impending staff losses and no impending decrease in patients.” The hospital, already short staffed, could lose many of its workers in the coming weeks when the state’s vaccine man- date goes into effect, forcing health care workers to get the shot or lose their jobs. That impending reality has sown a new kind of division, Hardin said, between unvaccinated employees worried about find- ing new work and vaccinated employees fearing what work will be like without them. The mandate comes as Umatilla County reported weekly case counts exceeding 350 for the 11th straight week, making the delta crisis the largest the county has faced by far. And a recent spike, driven partly by an outbreak linked to the Pendleton Round-Up, means the hospital could see yet another surge in patients. “There’s some uncertainty, which leads to worry and con- cern,” Hardin said. But for Hardin, she knows there’s only one thing a chap- lain can do. “We try to pass it on to God,” she said. “We’re chap- lains. We try to pass those things on along to that higher power that can maybe do something, or at least take that burden so that we don’t have to carry it.” Looking for Today in History? It now publishes inside with Dear Abby and Horoscope. Oregonians will get 17% of their 2020 state income taxes back BY BETSY HAMMOND The Oregonian Oregonians will get 17% of their 2020 Oregon in- come taxes back as a kicker credit when they file their 2021 taxes next year, the Or- egon Department of Reve- nue announced Tuesday. Revenue officials deter- mined more than a month ago that Oregon’s unique kicker rebate law would gen- erate a jaw-dropping $1.9 billion. But they needed to finalize and certify exactly how much each tax filer would be entitled to. The official answer is 17.341% of 2020 state in- come taxes paid. Taxpay- ers can find their 2020 tax liability on line 22 of their 2020 Form OR. Oregonians get a kicker rebate when the state’s reve- nue exceeds by 2% or more what state forecasters pro- jected far ahead of time. No other state has a similar law. People who paid 2020 Or- egon income taxes can file for and receive the credit in 2022, even if they don’t owe Oregon taxes on their 2021 income. If you owe the state money, whether for back taxes or for other items such as court fines or child sup- port, however, the state may use all or part of your kicker that debt first.
