TONL Volunteer Contributor

By Kathy Dassler MS RN, Chief Nursing Officer, President of STONL

Greetings to all of our TONL members. In this article, I would like to speak to our recent COVID pandemic and surge, not to speak about all the negatives but to speak about three key components that I have observed and been intimately involved in during the last six months as a Chief Nurse in the Rio Grande Valley. While most of it pertains to the organization where I am the executive, it mirrors what all my esteemed colleagues were challenged with and endured to provide the highest levels of quality care during a time that none of us have ever experienced in our careers and hopefully will never have to face again. While COVID is here to stay, I would like to focus on the following.

The three areas I will be addressing within this snippet are: COURAGE, COMPASSION AND RESILIENCY. You might be wondering why I placed COURAGE first; however, there are reasons behind this. Each and every one of our staff members demonstrated COURAGE to come to work and do their job to ensure that our patients were cared for, knowing that their family members could not be with them. COURAGE because they were concerned about being infected and possibly infecting their family members, yet they still came to work and did what we were trained to do. I never have had so many staff members say to me they were “scared” and “worried” that they could be infected. Yet they still came to work to take care of our patients, not knowing what to expect. Yes, many did become infected, but once recovered, they courageously came back to care for those that needed us the most.

COMPASSION: This was demonstrated every day in the simplest ways. Holding the hand of someone that was so scared because they were alone and hadn’t seen their loved ones. So what did we do? We FaceTimed with the family so they could see their loved one and if possible talk to them. But more important, when it was futile, the staff FaceTimed the family during the patient’s last moments so they could tell them they were loved and not alone, again while a nurse, tech, RT, MD remained with the patient during their final moments, and finally gathering around the bedside and saying a prayer for the recently deceased. How powerful for the family to know that that their loved one was not alone during their difficult journey. And knowing that there was many a staff member that cried with family because they had been caring for the patient for days on end. COMPASSION until the end.

RESILIENCY: I am most proud of our entire team because they have been incredibly RESILIENT in doing what they do best on a daily basis. Coming to work every day to care for these incredibly ill patients and speak to family members and provide support and comfort to let them know that their loved one was indeed in the best of hands. We have to be cognizant of the fact that this pandemic has impacted all of our staff, just like our veterans that suffer from PTSD. Our staff is doing the same. We as leaders need to be able to offer the assistance that is needed, and spend time talking with them. Because we have never experienced this type of “trauma” within our healthcare organizations, I implore each and every one of you to seek a colleague or professional to talk about this. Our teams survived, did an outstanding job, and although RESILIENT, they may need some assistance.

I am incredibly proud of the profession that I entered over 40 years ago, and in the words of Maya Angelou, whom I admire, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel,” and that is what WE are all about. We put our personal lives aside to care for those that need our care the most.

I am hoping you all feel the same as I do...

Kathy Dassler MS RN
Chief Nursing Officer
President of STONL