Nurses Week: Connections remain in the time of COVID

May 6, 2021

In honor of the continuation of the Year of the Nurse through 2021, and this year’s Nurses Week theme Nurses, a Voice to Lead, we’re sharing stories from the nurses of Infor. In these posts our nurses reflect on their own experience as caregivers, discuss how the pandemic has highlighted the extreme pressures nurses have always faced, and highlight ways that they are voicing and supporting the needs of nurses through their roles in technology.

When I moved away from bedside care a few years ago, I did so after spending most of my time in the CV ICU, caring for those who had been through trauma, heart transplants, and open-heart surgery along with critical complex surgeries. Whatever it was, we took care of them.

The first 24 hours were so crucial. Not just for the patients, who were usually sedated, but the families. I would spend most of my time talking to them, explaining what was happening, listening, and doing my best to make them comfortable with what was going on.

That impact and connection to family has stayed with me, even as I have moved on from my role in direct care. I joined Infor about four years ago, working today with the Infor People Solutions team. To say this past year has been a tough year for healthcare is an understatement, and that’s especially true for those clinicians at the bedside.

Through it all, we have kept our aim on making caregiver's lives easier. We know that’s what helps them provide the best, and most safe, patient care. We have worked directly with administrators, listening to them about what we can do to help with COVID-19. Along the way, we have helped them navigate everything from moving qualified and skilled staff after sudden clinic and surgery center closures to contact tracing and vaccine tracking.

Not everyone can work in a COVID unit, and our Talent Science predictive assessments have helped ID the right people to work with these high acuity patients. Do they know the process to wean a patient from a ventilator? Can they handle the stress?

It’s all about remaining passionate about healthcare and connected to what brought me to nursing in the first place. To keep me grounded, and my hands still in nursing, about 8 months ago I started a nonprofit along with my nursing colleagues. The mission is to educate young girls in Africa, specifically in health-related areas. This year, because of COVID, we have not been able to visit the areas we are serving, but have updated education guides, and conducted Zoom classes on things like CPR and newborn care. Again, working with families – not just the girls – is an important part of our mission.

I'm also feeling connected through Infor’s new clinical advocacy group, which is made up of nurses, clinicians, and others on our Infor team who have worked inside the four walls of a hospital. We get together and talk about healthcare, what we have all been through in the past, what we see in our future, and how we can support Infor solutions to meet the demands of the clinical team. While COVID has brought a lot of hardships, relationships remain at the heart of all we do.