intensive care nurse
Ricardo Lange: We can only do it together because of the pandemic
The intensive care nurse Ricardo Lange. Photo: Jens Kalaene/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
He has repeatedly spoken out publicly and named grievances in care. Now the intensive care nurse Ricardo Lange has written a book about what has been bothering him since Corona.
The intensive care nurse Ricardo Lange is experiencing an increasing social division in the corona pandemic, which is a burden on him.
If disinfectants and protective material were stolen from wards and opponents of the corona measures sent him inhuman messages, the abyss opened up, said Lange, who has become a face of the precarious working conditions in care during the pandemic, the German Press Agency. “But we will only all make it out of this pandemic together.”
According to Lange, the unvaccinated and the vaccinated are of equal value in the intensive care units. “My job as a nurse is not to judge. We must not begin to categorize people or judge them morally.”
The 40-year-old from Brandenburg, who lives on the outskirts of Berlin, gained notoriety through social media, a column and when he spoke about everyday hospital life at the federal press conference last year. The much-discussed nursing shortage has not only existed since the pandemic, but for a long time, stressed Lange. In addition to staff shortages, there is inadequate pay and a lack of appreciation.
In his book «Intensive – When the state of emergency is everyday life. An emergency call », which was published on Thursday, Lange writes about what has been bothering him since Corona, how great the physical and mental exhaustion of many nurses is and what needs to change. The job is the most varied that he knows, he emphasized in an interview. But he was no longer willing to exercise it at any price.