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In addition to teaching and conducting research, faculty in the Connell School of Nursing are also involved in clinical practice. More than one third of the faculty are working or volunteering as nurses and nurse practitioners in hospitals, clinics, and medical offices. These are challenging times to be a nurse, but the Connell School faculty has answered the call and their work is not only helping patients but serving as a model for 亚色影库 nursing students.
Three Connell faculty members share their experiences as nurses on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Though each person鈥檚 experience is unique, they wrestle with many of the same feelings: anxiety of the unknown, fear about the virus鈥� mortality rate, concern about infecting family and loved ones with the virus, anger about the inadequate supply of personal protective equipment, and sadness for patients who cannot have family and friends with them because of restrictions on visitors. The most striking commonality is the pride and unwavering commitment they have to serve as a nurse during the most pressing public health emergency in a hundred years.
Jane Ashley
Associate Professor
Ashley (above, right)听 has been a Connell School faculty member since 1983 and a nurse at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center since 1984. She works one or two days a week on a trauma floor where she has experienced caring for patients who have suffered accidents like motor vehicle collisions or falls at home. Suddenly now, her floor is dedicated to COVID-19 patients.
New reality
鈥淢y first experience with being a COVID nurse is that I flash back to what it was like to be a brand spanking new nurse, just graduated from school. For the first two hours of my shift, it's as if I've never worked as a nurse before. I take everything slowly and deliberately. It's an uncomfortable experience and, mercifully, it doesn't last long. Sometime mid-morning I realize I've got my nursing mojo back. I don't know when it returned but I do know that it was helped along by watching my younger nurse colleagues maneuver this strange new world with confidence and competence and even humor. These nurses are caring for patients every day working long shifts and overtime.鈥�
鈥淭he most difficult part of nursing during the pandemic is without a doubt the limited supply of PPE,鈥� said Ashley. 鈥淚 get one N95 mask for a week that I keep in a plastic container at the hospital when I leave for the day. There have been times when there weren't enough protective gowns so nurses needed to conserve the supply and make do with alternatives. My hospital is doing the best they can, but the requirements of caring for so many sick people have, at times, outpaced resources.
鈥淭he other aspect of wearing protective gear is that it takes time to put it on and take it off correctly,鈥� added Ashley. 鈥淚t is impossible now to quickly 鈥榗heck in鈥� on a patient, or to answer a simple question or to drop something off to one patient before attending to another because just entering a patient's room takes time. Nurses have found workarounds to some of these problems; for example, we all carry our patients' phone numbers with us now so we can call into the room. Other issues are harder to solve.听 When an emergency bell goes off and the patient requires a rapid response, the slow donning of protective gear is not ideal.鈥�