"I was asked to join the team as soon as possible. I was going through mixed emotions ranging from happiness, pride to fear and nervousness, but I was ready to fight the battle and save COVID patients," said an intern who had been recently hired to serve the COVID patients in Nagpur.

But his team leader Dr Jayashree Mohite expressed her doubts about these rapid hirings saying, "With the increase in inflow of patients, we have amped up hiring of healthcare professionals and it is good to see so many people volunteering for it selflessly. But my concern is that some of the new ones who  are hired are not very capable or trained well for these strict situations. 

Sometimes I notice these freshers all exhausted and confused and buckling under the pressure and this sends shivers down my spine as I realise that they are exposing themselves and everyone around them, including patients and colleagues, to a huge risk. Moreover this COVID war is not a few months issue--these freshers need to be resilient even in their minds to last through it.

Being a team leader directing a group of young enthusiasts who aren't trained enough for the pandemic, I feel pressurized into thinking, what if these freshers mess up or end up getting infected themselves? How will I manage the rest? That too all alone? It is a huge risk that we are taking right now and being a team leader feels like a burden to me in the current times as I cannot foresee any positivity ahead.

Though we are training them but given the paucity of time and the huge tidal wave of patients everyday, as team leader I am hardly left with the luxury of time to oversee what processes these kids are following. 

I have no option but to trust them.

And this is giving me nightmares. 

Each night I go home thinking what have these children done today; I hope they will be okay tomorrow; I hope they will not crash on the floor itself out of pressure….

I am left wondering that besides shouldering my own pressures, I have additional responsibility of these kids…

I don’t like being in this place but then I do not have enough options, do I?