A Western Health nurse working on the frontline sent an impassioned plea to Victorians at Monday's COVID-19 press conference, urging people to get vaccinated to protect the community.
Kylie Fisher described the harrowing experiences last year as Western hospitals were inundated with cases before vaccines were available.
Here is what she had to say:
"I really want to talk to you about what happened at Western Health last year — we had over 400 patients admitted to a hospital with COVID-19. [And] I want to talk to you today about the overwhelming number of patients admitted to the wards in our hospitals.
"I am privileged to be able to work with a group of nurses called the critical care outreach team, the ICU liaison nurses at Western Health. Last year, they helped prevent hundreds of admissions to our intensive care units by acting as an extension of the ICUs. They helped support our ward nurses to support our patients and communities.
"They [nurses] would often come to me overwhelmed, sometimes in tears. They were worried. They would come to work worried. They were worried about their colleagues.
"They were worried about how they would support their colleagues on the wards. Looking after overwhelming numbers of acutely unwell patients, patients that we usually don't see admitted to the wards.
"They were worried about their families. They would go home after 12-hour shifts, long shifts, they would have showers before they would leave work, drive home, get out of their cars, get changed out of their scrubs in their garages, and have another shower again before they would go in and hug their families and loved ones.
"I saw tears. I saw exhaustion. I saw nurses consoling nurses. I saw nurses with blood across their noses and ears from wearing PPE for 12 hours at a time, long shifts on their feet, kilometres and kilometres that they clock up responding to emergency calls and calls for assistance on the wards.
"They would come to me and they would say: 'Kylie, it is not like anything we've ever seen before, these patients are young, they are fit, and one minute, they are well next minute, we are taking them to ICU .'
"Now, you ask me what I'm worried about as their manager? I'm worried I'll have to ask them to stand up and do it all again. And they will.
"These are senior nurses that have seen it all before and done it all before, and I probably have to ask them to do it all again. They will, but they shouldn't have to.
"So, I'm asking. We're lucky. We have got science, we have got a vaccine. Please, if you haven't already, get yourself vaccinated.
Victoria has recorded 73 new locally acquired COVID-19 cases, with at least 24 of the cases in quarantine during their infectious period
