Answering the Call During the Pandemic
Answering the Call By Innovation
Answering the Call By Boat and By Plane
Answering the Call By Serving Where Needed
Ginny Bowers, CNM, IBCLC, RC Easton, Maryland
Julie Drude, FNP, DNP Travel Nurse
Joy McElyea, MSN, CNM, RN, CNEP, DNP, Gunnison, Colorado
On March 18, 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, Ginny Bowers posted her innovative idea on social media: “Mobile midwifery! Taking care of my pregnant mamas in their cars in order to help out our community.”
Julie Drude began working as a travel nurse in 2012, with her first assignment being the rural town of Bethel, Alaska. She worked there again in 2015 and 2017, and in Valdez, Alaska in the summer of 2020. In the winter of 2021, she worked in Homer, delivering the COVID vaccine to patients in a remote village accessible only by plane or boat.
As the Head Midwife at Chesapeake Women’s Health in Easton, Maryland, Bowers recognized the need to reduce the risks of exposure to her pregnant patients. Having them come into the office for appointments added risks that could be avoided by offering a drive-up option.
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“I felt very well prepared as a Frontier graduate to do any job,” she said. “I love the emphasis on rural health and getting outside of your comfort zone and going where no one has gone before to serve. Frontier ingrains that in you.”
In non-COVID times, Joy McElyea primarily works as a CNM in an outpatient clinic. As an APRN, however, she was prepared when needed at a local hospital. “My nursing background is corrections and long-term care. But these days, I’m standing next to ER doctors and EMS crews,” she said. “I am so thankful that Frontier continues on, adapting just like all of us on the front lines, supporting students just as we support our patients. Health care will be different after this, but the flexibility, empathy, understanding, and forward-thinking nature of the FNU community will prepare us well for whatever role we find ourselves in. And for that, I am grateful.”
