Carol Strosser, BSN, RN, CH-ICU – Jefferson Health
I don’t have a particular story for you. But what I do want to share with you regarding the COVID surge is how great everyone was. As you probably know, it was super-busy. And all the nurses that came to help (from WTD, STD, peri-op) and medical assistants (from the doctors’ offices) were absolutely wonderful. Not once did I feel like they didn’t want to be here helping us. Everyone pitched in to do what we had to do to help our patients. There were times when we were tripled up on patients and it became overwhelming, too busy to eat, too busy to go to the bathroom, too busy to have a sip of water. The extra people that were here helping really kept us going.
I also want to give kudos to our two educators (Donna Cybulski and Colleen Stancavage) who were here every day with us, guiding us, running for supplies, and helping us prone the patients. It was pretty scary at first turning them with breathing tubes, central lines, arterial lines, Foley catheters. They showed us how to do it and keep the patients safe. At times, they took over proning the patients with other staff members so that we were able to get our work done. I am so proud to work for Jefferson! The level of teamwork everyone displayed is what kept us going. We all got through it together!