As hospitals prepare for a possibly overwhelming number of COVID-19 patients in the coming weeks, doctors and nurses in all departments are being told they may have to start working in emergency rooms and intensive care units, a directive that has sent shock waves through the medical community.

Health workers say they are concerned about their ability to perform duties they haven’t done in decades, or perhaps ever, as well as for their own health and safety.

“Anxiety is an understatement. I’d be terrified,” said a surgical nurse at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. There, a looming staff shortage caused by COVID-19 could mean a labor pool to redistribute nurses to the intensive care unit, she said.

“No reasonable person would ever expect me to do that under normal circumstances,” said the nurse, who, like others interviewed for this article, spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media.

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