It’s the longest wait of your life—the wait to see a doctor after a medical emergency. Critical care nurse, Tracie Neilson, of Cone Health knows this and wants to get patients treated as fast as possible. But if you bring a family member or friend to the emergency department during the current surge of the Delta variant of COVID-19 you may be disappointed.

“We might not have the facility to be able to help them, and that’s not any position a hospital wants to be in, but you’re tying our hands if we’re filled with COVID beds,” Neilson said.

It’s a hard position for everyone, but there’s a solution. Vaccination is the key to decrease the number of COVID patients and free up beds for other emergencies.

Hear her full experience from the frontline and hear more stories from frontline workers. And visit https://covid19.ncdhhs.gov/vaccines to find a vaccination site near you.