Custodial Staff at Hospitals (Michelle Zemke)
Fact-Checked Source: Katerina Ang, 'As you get older, the physical stuff is hard.' Meet the hospital cleaner on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic
On April 20th, 2020 MarketWatch website author, Katerina Ang, shed light on the difficult situation that hospital cleanings staff members at hospitals are going through with the coronavirus pandemic. Katerina Ang Article Link
Looking Deeper: Five Facts Checked
In order to better understand the claims that are made in the op-ed, I have done research to verify five facts that are claimed throughout the article. Hospital cleaners, meanwhile, are often trained to a higher degree than other janitors.
I wanted to look into this claim because I had always thought that all janitors were trained the same. The information in the claim is coming directly from the Southlake Regional Health Center in Canada, where the hospital cleaner that is being interviewed is employed. LeBlanc, the hospital cleaner, was trained by this health center for his job, which includes knowing how to completely sanitize an area. Centers like this are also held to a higher standard for cleaning than schools, which would ensure that this claim is trustworthy.
“It’s a more comprehensive sanitization as compared to just wiping down a surface,” Gough adds.
This claim intrigued me because in the news, there seems to be new information on how to properly sanitize an area to get rid of COVID-19. This quotes comes directly from Charles Gough who is the president of No More Dirt, which is a cleaning supplies company in the San Francisco Bay Area that provides supplies to medical facilities. With his expert background in providing these chemicals to hospitals, I would trust this source. He is in charge of a company that specializes in proper sanitation, so his recommendation would be trustworthy.
And while doctors and white-collar health-care professionals are likely to have good health insurance and other benefits, that isn’t necessarily the case for hospital cleaners.
Although this may seem like a common fact, I was skeptical that hospital cleaners at world-renowned hospitals were treated the same way as if they worked at an average hospital. According to work.chron.com, "Many janitors also work part-time and don't receive benefits, which can make it difficult to get affordable health insurance and care,". This backs up the original claim that hospital cleaners do not have the same access to healthcare insurance, due to the fact that most of them are part-time workers. With this quote, I would trust the source and the claim that the original article states.
This fact was interesting to me because I am not very familiar with what a janitor or cleaner gets paid. I was curious if there was a significant difference between what claimed in the article and what the latest report states. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, "The median hourly wage for janitors and building cleaners was $12.55 in May 2018,". The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a reputable source since it is a government agency, for the purpose of producing accurate statistics for the labor force.The median wage for a janitor in the U.S. in 2018 was $12.55 an hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
President Trump has said he would invoke the act to require General Motors make ventilators, but has not said he would use the act to produce protective equipment.
I was interested in this claim because there are new statements, facts, and claims coming out everyday. I was unsure if this claim was truly up to date. According to Politico.com, "President Donald Trump today invoked the Defense Production Act, directing General Motors to produce ventilators needed for the coronavirus outbreak,".This article also included direct quotes from Donald Trump's twitter page, so I also check his twitter page to ensure that the tweets were correct. With having this website delivering reputable tweets, and backing up my original website, I would trust this source.
Analytic Essay
Who is protecting the essential workers?
When you walk into a hospital, you normally head straight towards the front desk. You don’t look at how clean the windows are, how shiny the floor is, or that all of the trash cans are nearly empty. Thanks to the hardworking hospital cleaners, all of these things are possible. These are the “behind the scenes” people that keep the hospital clean, safe, and aesthetically pleasing. So what happens to these essential workers through a pandemic, such as COVID-19? Exploring how these cleaners are being affected by the coronavirus is essential to fully understand the impact of this pandemic.
Hospital cleaners perspectives are conveyed in this source, specifically the perspective of Don LeBlanc, Jr. who is a cleaner at Southlake Regional Health Centre in Toronto, CA. The perspective is shown in the title, “As you get older, the physical stuff is hard. Meet the hospital cleaner on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic” (Ang, 2020). I can tell that the author is truly interested in getting to know LeBlanc since there are sections about his family and what is important to him. It also shares the perspective of cleaning companies, like No More Dirt, that are helping to supply the medical facilities with proper cleaning equipment. In society, we think of a cleaner as a middle-class job. Their job is essential for a hospital to be fully functional. Although when we think about a hospital, we first think of doctors and nurses but hospital cleaners are just as important.
The COVID-19 outbreak is a very serious issue for the world. Each person has their own responsibility to distance themselves from others, as well as only shop for essential items. There are some controversies on the issue since this is a new topic and our government is not entirely sure how to handle every detail of the outbreak. For hospital cleaners this is an especially disconcerting time for them. They continue to go to work, take out trash, clean “touch-points” and sanitize patient rooms. Each task involved in their job is putting them at risk to be infected with the coronavirus.
The biggest value of hospital cleaning crews is safety, the safety of their coworkers, patients, themselves, and their families. They go to work each day as certified germ killers, with the risk of the germs getting on them. Ang also notes that, “ Southlake Regional Health Centre trained LeBlanc on how to use personal-protection equipment and on the specifications of certain chemicals for about six weeks before he started his job two years ago,” (Ang, 2020). The cleaner’s goal is to keep everyone else safe, but who is truly protecting them? “Infection risk, which is 5% in the general population, can be 15%–20% in health care workers,” (C. Otis, 2005). This statistic is from a scholarly article on the infection rate of Hepatitis B. Although this is a different virus, I think it is important to highlight the immense difference of infection risk between the general population and healthcare workers, including hospital cleaning crews. The cleaners have to take it upon themselves to take every precaution to keep everyone around them safe.
I believe that the intended audience of the article is the general public. Through this pandemic, we praise the essential workers like doctors, grocery workers, and truck drivers. “But what has remained the same, they say, is a lack of respect and, often, inadequate compensation,” (Ducharme, 2020). We have forgotten about the true backbone of what is preventing the spread of the virus, and that is hospital workers. The authors are trying to bring attention to hospital cleaners, like LeBlanc, who are being dismissed, even though they are one of the most important essential workers on the front-line.
Hospital cleaning staff members are most concerned about how many patients are infected in their working environment. Each crew member is risking their life to clean the hospital so more patients can be admitted. If they know how many and where the COVID-19 patients are located, they’re going to be better protected from obtaining the virus. Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, each hospital cleaner was trained on how to properly sanitize a room. Furthermore, “There are also regular online-refresher courses,” (Ang, 2020). Now with the coronavirus spreading through hospitals, this training, as well as new training is essential to stop COVID-19. Since they have an extensive background on how to kill germs, they have more knowledge than the average person on how to kill the virus.
These hospital cleaners are putting their trust in the hospitals, and cleaning product manufacturers that are giving them instructions. The cleaners are trusting the people overseeing them to give them the best advice on how to properly clean each hospital room, especially those that had patients with COVID-19 in them. If a member of the cleaning crew is taught how to clean a room a certain way, and it is not properly sanitized and leads to more infections, the cleaners would lose trust in the hospital staff instructors. This would initiate collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the hospitals, cleaning product manufacturers, and the hospital cleaners. They would all have to work together to find a common ground on how to properly sanitize a room, in order to ensure the safety of the next patient admitted.
These hospital cleaners are putting their trust in the hospitals, and cleaning product manufacturers that are giving them instructions. The cleaners are trusting the people overseeing them to give them the best advice on how to properly clean each hospital room, especially those that had patients with COVID-19 in them. If a member of the cleaning crew is taught how to clean a room a certain way, and it is not properly sanitized and leads to more infections, the cleaners would lose trust in the hospital staff instructors. This would initiate collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the hospitals, cleaning product manufacturers, and the hospital cleaners. They would all have to work together to find a common ground on how to properly sanitize a room, in order to ensure the safety of the next patient admitted.
This is an important perspective to include on our website because these under-appreciated front-line workers are experiencing something like no one else. This source has several direct quotes from Don LeBlanc, Jr., which explains what it is like for him to go to work each day, and help combat this disease. With the hospital cleaners perspective, we are able to have a broader picture of how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting our society.
References
Ang, K. (2020, April 5). 'As you get older, the physical stuff is hard.' Meet the hospital cleaner on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic. Market Watch. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/on-the-frontlines-fighting-covid-19-for-1730-an-hou r-2020-03-30This is a primary source that is an online article from marketwatch.com, highlighting the opinion of a hospital cleaner. The perspective is shown in the title, since it is including a direct quote from the cleaner himself. I can also tell that the author is truly interested in getting to know the cleaner, since there are sections about his family and what is important to him. The article also shares the perspective of cleaning companies that are helping the medical facilities. The main purpose of the article is for the author to show the public exactly what the hospital cleaners are going through when they go to work each day, and how it is affecting them. With more and more COVID-19 cases arriving in hospitals, custodial staff members are having to work extra hours to keep the hospitals safe. The cleaners are on the front-line of the COVID-19 pandemic, yet their wages are not being increased. They are also having to learn how to operate new equipment to sanitize the hospitals.This source provides meaningful evidence of the perspective because these under-appreciated front-line workers are experiencing something like no one else. This source has an abundance of direct quotes from the hospital cleaners, which explains what it is like for them to go to work each day, and help combat this disease.
Bade, G. (2020, March 27). 'GM was wasting time': Trump invokes DPA to force GM to make ventilators. POLITICO. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/27/trump-slams-gm-over-ventilator-production-delays-costs-151885
This source was used in fact checking.
Ducharme, J. (2020, March 31). What It's Like to Clean Professionally During COVID-19. TIME Magazine. https://time.com/5810911/covid-19-cleaners-janitors/
This is an article from TIME magazine explaining what hospital custodial staff are going through with the COVID-19 outbreak. It shows the perspective of a hospital cleaner by quoting her directly, not only in the title, but in the article. It shares quotes about her family, what her safety is like, and how she is cleaning the rooms where patients with COVID-19 were held. The main purpose of this source is to shed light on what hospital cleaners are going through. It also shows their fears, what they know, and how they are taking steps to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. This article also shares their concerns about how some hospitals are not fully confident about how to clean the rooms where patients with COVID-19 were held, which leaves the custodial staff at a loss. They are struggling to ensure their own safety and the safety of those that are in the hospital. I think the selected source will provide good evidence of their perspective because it shows how different hospitals are trying to combat the spread of COVID-19. Cleaners are trying to ensure the safety of everyone around them, while also trying to be positive.
Janitors and Building Cleaners: Occupational Outlook Handbook. (2020, April 10). U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/building-and-grounds-cleaning/janitors-and-building-cleaners.htm?view_full
This source was used in fact checking.
Kokemuller, N. (2017, November 21). What Are the Negatives About Being a Janitor? Chron. https://work.chron.com/negatives-being-janitor-21724.html
This source was used in fact checking.
No More Dirt. (n.d.). https://www.nomoredirt.com/
This source was used in fact checking.
Osti, C. (2005). Hepatitis B virus: evaluation of infection risk and serological response to vaccine in hospital cleaners of the Botucatu School of Medicine. Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases, 11(2), 213.https://doi.org/10.1590/S1678-91992005000200010
This is a scholarly article written by professor Jussara Marcondes Machdo who is a professor at Sao Paulo State University, as well as a master’s student specializing in tropical diseases at Botucatu School of Medicine, Sao Paulo State university in Brazil. This source talks about the risks associated with health cleaners in regard to diseases in a hospital. They use the risk statistics of the general public compared to those that are cleaning hospitals. The thesis of the source is the increased infection risk and response to vaccines in hospital cleaners compared to the general public. Since healthcare cleaners come in close contact with individuals that are infected, they have a higher risk of getting diseases. The study included both females and males between 21 and 53 years old that cleaned hospitals. A HBV-carrier who receives outpatient follow-up for diagnosis of chronic hepatitis and those who were not protected by vaccine will all receive booster doses of revaccination. I think the selected source will provide additional insight into the perspective of hospital cleaners because it shows that in the past hospital cleaners had an increased infection risk. It has scientific evidence that shows the associated risk of contracting a disease to the healthcare cleaners. This relates to COVID-19 because these same cleaners are being exposed to deadly diseases.
Peña, M. (2020, April 2). Hospital Housekeeper with Coronavirus Says Not Enough Being Done to Protect Workers: 'People Are Afraid to Come to Work'. Block Club Chicago. https://blockclubchicago.org/2020/04/02/hospital-housekeeper-with-covid-19-says-not-enough-being-done-to-protect-workers-people-are-afraid-to-come-to-work/
This is a primary source with direct quotes from a hospital cleaner who contracted the virus. The article is from the Block Club Chicago website. I can tell that the perspective is from the hospital cleaner herself. At the top of the article it shows a picture of the hospital cleaner and the hospital where she works. It has direct quotes from the worker as well as quotes from the union that represents her. The main purpose of this source was to show that hospitals are not doing enough to protect their essential employees, like the cleaners. It is also sharing some of the fears these types of workers are having by being forced to go to work each day, and the impact it has on their lives. Each day that hospital cleaners are working, they have an increased chance of being exposed to the coronavirus. This can take an emotional, mental, and physical toll on them. This gives fear to the workers that are going into the hospitals to keep everyone else safe. I think the selected source will provide good evidence of the perspective because it is from a hospital cleaner that actually has the coronavirus. She gives personal examples of what it was like to go to work each day, and the toll it took on her.