Our Hard-Working Local Nurses! By Sabrina Stone
Healthcare is not for the faint of heart. On the best of days, performing the duties of a practitioner is difficult. On the worst of days, frontline workers witness more tragedy than any of us should have to. They work diligently. They work tirelessly. They stay positive, for us! I spoke to several nurses from hospitals and clinics around New Orleans, to get their perspective on the pandemic, to learn about their daily lives, to hear about their hopes for the future, and to ask them what we can do to best support them in an ongoing way.
Rebecca Songy
Rebecca Songy, ICU RN “The best way to take care of nurses right now is by taking care of you, so that we don’t have to. Make your baseline healthy. Quit smoking. Thank us from afar! I think people now are so much more aware of their health and more receptive than they’ve ever been. That’s a huge thing for us, as nurses, reaching people at that preventative stage because once you get to the treatment stage, the damage has already been done. I love so many aspects of my job. I love how much I have to think. I love how interconnected the body systems are. I change one medicine and it changes a symptom, and then I have to change another medicine. My favorite part of my job is my coworkers. They’re some of the strongest, smartest people I know. When the world locked down, we weren't able to rely on our normal support system of family and friends. We were spending hours and hours every day together. We relied on each other. We leaned on each other in every way. We became a family.” Brandon Brown, BS MN CRNA “I do anesthesia, so my job is a matter of meeting someone who’s about to have surgery—nine out of 10 times, that person is nervous. I make them feel comfortable, let them know they can trust me. We do the procedure, wake them up, and make it feel effortless. The most rewarding thing is when I bring them to recovery and they say, “When are we going to do the surgery?” and I get to say, “It’s already done.” As chief of my department, I have to lead my team into battle, to keep in mind how every individual is doing physically and emotionally, navigate what happens when someone tests positive or their family member does. For encouragement, I put N95 masks in brown paper bags with memes that said, “We ride at dawn!” The
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Mother's Day / Graduation | Where Y'at Magazine
My wife Laterrica is a nurse, too. She works around the city, but we do get to see each other at work…on Mondays. —Brandon Brown, Chief CRNA, Touro Infirmary
Brandon Brown,
(with thoughts of his wife, Laterrica Antoine Brown, MN CRNA)
FROM TOP: PIXABAY; SABRINA STONE / PROVIDED PHOTOS
National Nurses Week is May 6-12, but if you’re lucky enough to have a nurse in your life, thank them every day!
NURSING THE PANDEMIC Let’s Give A Spotlight to
