From taking on new roles, longer hours, or having to be in full protective gear for sometimes 12 hours, the coronavirus pandemic has meant many nurses have had to step up to the plate to help cover different units.
Friday’s Heroes of Hope story is highlighting nurses at UConn health who rose to the occasion and the amount of work it took for hospitals to transition.
“It was tremendous to see it was, the resolve that the nursing staff had in the face of this adversity was just remarkable,” Chief Nursing Officer Caryl Ryan said.
As the coronavirus spread, like many hospitals across the country UConn health leaders knew it was time to kick a game plan into gear to prepare for a surge.
“It was a lot of work upfront, prepping planning, coordinating between all the units.” Assistant Nurse Manager Alyssa Ciullo said.
When the hospital decided to turn its general medicine to a COVID floor.
It meant nurses not only had to be flexible but also help take on new roles.
“Bring up our PACU Nursing, our endoscopy procedure nurses and our OR nurses back up to the critical care areas,” Ryan said.
She added, “We had to educate them. We used team nursing approach, we paired them up with our nursing staff in the ICU and that’s how we have survived.”
The pandemic has meant changes for things that were once so simple for nurses working on COVID floors.
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“You can’t just run to take a bathroom break when you want. We used to be able to grab a sip of water during the day, now you have to take off all of your PPE and leave the actual unit to go get any kind of refreshment,” Ciullo said.
While the long days can be challenging
Ciullo says they continue to celebrate the good moments and support one another.
“I think we’ve become even more of a family even on your off days just texting people I know yesterday was tough for you today,”