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Midwest Nurses Say Their Hospitals Are On The Verge Of Collapsing — And Leaders Aren’t Listening

Cheryl Rodarmel, the chief nurse at the Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri, said she is not sure how much longer she can go on like this.

The 61-year-old has loved her job for all 42 years she has been a nurse. But now, she said, the relentless influx of COVID-19 patients who have deluged her wards has her worried that her hospital system will collapse, and most of the staff along with it due to burnout and contracting the virus themselves. Meanwhile, outside the hospital, too many of her fellow residents refuse to wear a mask or otherwise protect themselves and their communities from the virus, driving infection rates ever higher.


“Those in positions of power are still allowing this virus to run unchecked,” she said. “If we continue like this, we won't have the nurses, beds, or ability to care for everyone.”

Across Kansas and Missouri, as intensive care units fill to capacity and beyond with patients struggling to breathe, an increasingly alarmed chorus of medical professionals are echoing Rodarmel’s worries. This week, Kansas posted a seven-day record for new coronavirus cases. In nearly two days, 5,853 people tested positive and 60 others died. In the first two weeks of November, Missouri recorded more COVID cases — nearly 60,000 — than it did during any other month since the pandemic began. The state’s current positivity rate is a whopping 27%.