Through It All,
Duke Nurses Stand by COVID-19 Patients
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nurse for 39 years, Mary Ann Fuchs can’t think of another time when she was prouder to be a nurse. During the pandemic, nurses have dedicated themselves in renewed efforts to the charge of providing the best care possible for patients. Fuchs is inspired by the seamless dedication Duke nurses have displayed as comforter, lifesaver, fill-in family member, and fearless caretaker. “We wouldn’t have gotten through the pandemic without nurses, not just locally, but across the country and around the world,” said Fuchs, vice president of Patient Care and system chief nurse executive for Duke University Health System. “There’s no doubt that nurses, like other people and other team members, rose to the occasion. They did whatever it took.” At Duke, approximately 1,300 of the 6,500 nurses at the three Duke hospitals have cared for COVID-19 patients in intensive, step-down, and progressive care units. Other nurses looked after patients in their clinics or filled roles in virus testing or administering vaccine doses. As the pandemic reaches its second-year anniversary, here are some of their stories.
Faith during uncertainty For 21 years as a Duke University Hospital nurse, Rose-Annie Ofori started and ended her workday at Duke University Hospital by praying. She prayed before leaving her house, before patient rounds and when she returned home. That didn’t change when the pandemic erupted. She just prayed that her patients and colleagues would survive coronavirus. Faith has kept Ofori grounded in the face of a deadly threat. “You have to have something to hold onto because you are losing everything,” said Ofori, who cared for COVID-19 patients in the Adult Medicine/Step-Down Unit, which treats
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WORKING@DUKE
Rose-Annie Ofori, clinical nurse at Duke University Hospital. Photo by Justin Cook.
people who need intermediate care but are stable enough to not require intensive care. “You don’t know the outcome of this process, so you have to have a higher power to hold on to.” After graduating from Winston-Salem State University in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in nursing, she joined Duke University Hospital, where she has typically worked with general adult patients. Since the pandemic, her duties have revolved around COVID-19, providing high levels of oxygen, medicine, and support for patients until they need critical care. Many times, she held a patient’s hand, closed her eyes, and prayed for their protection. Ofori has been inspired by the teamwork and dedication she has seen from nurses in her unit and how they cared for sick patients. “We played a very major role in this pandemic in the sense that we went there to take care of people when family can’t be
