the fight against covid-19

On the front lines

Woman in medical face mask

COVID-19’s impact widely affects our nation. The pandemic has changed much about our daily lives, forcing us to adapt to different routines as we try to create a “new normal”. Many people remain sheltered at home, distancing themselves from non-household members, and keeping interactions in public to a minimum.

Quarantining, however, is not an option for nurses. Instead of remaining at home, nurses arrive at work ready to care for those who are unable to care for themselves.

Here are the stories of five IUSON BL graduates who experience the effects of COVID-19 every day. Two of the profiled alumni are RN to BSN Online Degree Completion Option graduates, while three are new grads from our traditional BSN Program.

While navigating their way through a sea of changes caused by COVID-19, our IUSON BL grads emerged as stronger nurses, and we could not be more proud of them!

Amy Brown and Kate Pedigo: RN to BSN Online Degree Completion Option Graduates

Amy Brown
Although Amy Brown recently graduated from our RN to BSN Online Degree Completion Option, she is not new to nursing. With over two decades of experience, Amy works at IU Health Bedford in the surgery department.

Similar to most hospitals, IU Health Bedford’s response to COVID-19 includes limiting elective surgeries.  As a result, Amy finds her responsibilities moving outside of the surgery department and has gained new skills working in the ED, ICU, and on the Medical floor. The departments she now finds herself working in have not only increased her knowledge of hospital systems, but also of the larger community of coworkers around her. “I’ve made friends in these new departments,” she says, “where, before COVID-19, these coworkers were just a voice over the phone.”

Amy also says that an ethics class she took as part of her RN to BSN program – and an in-class discussion about the country’s relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina – gave her “a new lens” to look through when gauging the response to COVID-19. “With COVID-19, I now look at the care provided, as well as the communication and response, differently than I otherwise would have,” she says.
Kate Pedigo
IUSON BL alum Kate Pedigo works in a completely different arena than her fellow RN to BSN grad but she, too, feels the pandemic’s effects. Kate’s job as a flight nurse means that she tends to trauma patients on a helicopter as her team transports them to the nearest hospital for emergency medical care.

At the start, Kate’s unit wasn’t specifically flying COVID-19 patients but, early on, Kate realized that could become a distinct possibility. “You need a high index of caution with every patient because they could have COVID-19,” she says. Her team quickly adapted and implemented additional safety measures aboard their helicopter. “When you know you have a COVID patient, you need to be really mindful of certain practices, like aerosolizing procedures. I actually think the pandemic makes me a better clinician,” she says.

Taylor Parrish, Megan Ooley, and Kendra Crouch: Traditional BSN graduates

Taylor Parrish (left) and Megan Ooley (right)
Upon graduating in May 2019, friends Taylor Parrish and Megan Ooley headed to Indianapolis, where they work as Medical ICU nurses at IU Health University Hospital. University Hospital is home to the Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Research Center, which treats cancer patients and others who are autoimmune-compromised. University Hospital decided not to accept any COVID-19 patients until every bed at its sister hospital, IU Health Methodist, was filled – with the result that University Hospital’s Medical ICU hit a lull at the time other hospitals were experiencing surges.

“We would be having a pretty easy day and hear about all these other units in other hospitals that were sort of drowning,” Megan says. Realizing they wanted to go where their help was needed most, Taylor and Megan spoke to their shift coordinator and, this past spring, volunteered to go to IU Health West in Avon to treat COVID patients.

“The first shift was a little bit overwhelming, having so many sick patients at once,” Taylor recalls. In the ICU, Taylor and Megan would normally be assigned two patients at a time. Taylor and Megan now found themselves caring for double the number of patients and needing to quickly learn the “team nursing” approach to patient care.

Megan recalls how she and Taylor were both designated primary care nurses in a team of patient care providers. This approach to patient care made them responsible for leading their teams. “I think they assumed ‘you’re from a hospital in Indy, so you know what you’re doing,’” she smiles. In order to care for all of her patients, Megan would take a second nurse into each room with her.  While Megan assessed the patient and provided critical care, she would also direct the other nurse’s tasks.

Megan and Taylor soon discovered they needed to teach their teams “on the go”. Many of the other nurses assigned to their teams, and now under their direction, came from other units in the hospital or worked in closed surgical clinics. Their recent nursing experience wasn’t in critical care. “I had to teach critical care / ICU skills,” says Taylor. “I also had to learn how to let go and trust that the other nurses could care for these patients, too.”
Megan Ooley

“I had families call and say they were sitting outside the hospital in the parking lot, which was a way for them to feel closer to their loved one, but it’s never enough when they’re that sick. I would tell the patient their family was calling, and you could only imagine how lonely it was for them.”

                     – Megan Ooley, IUSON 2019 Graduate

Expanded guidelines for the use of personal protective gear – and the need to “gown up” – also added to the complexity of the day’s routines. “It’s no longer as simple as just getting hand sanitizer and walking into someone’s room,” says Taylor. “If there’s an emergency, we have to completely gown up before we can even respond.”

Creating a working team while in a new environment has been an eye-opening experience for Megan and Taylor and, although just out of nursing school, they emerged as leaders.  They also had to face their fear of the unknown. “We needed to overcome our own feelings of being scared and worrying about taking COVID-19 home to our families,” says Taylor. 

The restriction on visitors to include family members became another COVID-related procedural change. “I had families call and say they were sitting outside the hospital in the parking lot, which was a way for them to feel closer to their loved one, but it’s never enough when they’re that sick,” Megan says. Most of the COVID-19 patients that Megan or Taylor cared for weren’t heavily sedated and were very aware of their surroundings. “You would tell them their family was calling, and you could only imagine how lonely it was for them,” Megan says.
Kendra Crouch
The new policy restricting visitors, says IUSON BL 2020 graduate Kendra Crouch, gave her more time to focus on her patients without interruptions, but she agrees with Taylor and Megan that it hasn’t been easy for the patients. “I think it decreases patient outcomes when they don’t have family support,” she says.

Upon graduation last May, Kendra landed a job at IU Health Bloomington Hospital as an RN on the Cardiovascular Recovery Unit, where she worked as a student nurse. However, when Kendra started working on the floor she knew so well, she found herself taking care of a different type of patient. “Since half of our ICU at the hospital is designated for COVID, our floor is taking on a lot more traditional ICU patients,” she explains.

Caring for a new type of patient means developing new skills. Relying on the help of her nurse preceptor, Brittany Wright, Kendra adapted the skills she learned in the classroom to her new responsibilities, but that hasn’t always been easy.

“As a student being on the floor, you might do the charting and, maybe, you do the medication passes or use other skills; whereas now, you’re really taking over the care of the patient and doing everything,” she says. Her time spent in orientation has been crucial as she navigates her way through so many changes at once, absorbing as much as she can. “I appreciate the challenge and the complexity,” she says, “but it’s definitely been a hard adjustment.”
Five different stories, but each with the same result. While navigating their way through a sea of COVID-related changes and new challenges, Amy, Kate, Taylor, Megan, and Kendra became stronger nurses through their willingness to quickly adapt to new environments and learn new skills. They embody the true spirit of what it means to be an IU Nurse and – as with all of our nursing graduates on the frontlines against COVID-19 – we salute them for their courage, compassion, determination, and resiliency.