Cheryl Young: Registered nurse
Taking care of each other: “We see the loss of patients, we have to contact family members, we worry about our own family members and we worry about each other and the unity has been amazing. Some days I think that’s what gets us through all of this – working together as a team.”
Taking care of ourselves: “To break it down on a personal level, I never thought I would wear a mask everywhere I go, so much hand washing (which is a good thing), socially isolating – staying away from people. I think we are blessed that we have social media and electronics to keep in contact, but there really is a feeling of isolation for me. It’s been nine long months of not having my entire family together.”
Taking care of patients: “It’s so much of a comfort for a patient to be able to see your face, see your mouth, know that you are smiling instead of just seeing it in your eyes. I myself realized that I read lips more than I realized once everybody had a mask on. We do write notes to them sometimes and that’s able to help them. I had one patient who brought their own notepad so that they could write because it was hard to actually understand what they were saying under their mask.”
Taking the vaccine: “This vaccine truly represents the light at the end of the tunnel, new things on the horizon, being able to get COVID-19 under control, and being able to get back to life as we knew it. I trust the science behind the vaccine, I trust the research, I encourage everyone to get vaccinated so that we can move forward and get on with our lives, get back to what we enjoy doing. I will be able to sit down with my family in my home and laugh and joke and have Christmas as we knew it and eat all of the food that they love that I fix on Christmas Eve – shrimp, ham, meatballs, all of the baked goodies, and mac and cheese, everything they request and everything that they love – doing our silly gift exchange, opening our presents, and just have that that wonderful time of laughter joy and fellowship together that we’ve known for so many years. Maybe we took it for granted, but it means so much and I’m looking forward to getting back to that.”
