Heather, Patient Care Associate, Westchester County
By Jim Allen
Shift Change tells the stories of ordinary people on the frontlines during a transformational period in American life. The goal of this project is to raise funds for Supply Drop Brooklyn, a charitable organization that partners with local restaurants to deliver meals to healthcare workers at affected hospitals. Your help can make a critical difference. Please visit Supply Drop and learn how you can make a contribution. For more information about this project, check out our About page.
Heather is a Patient Care Associate in Westchester County, New York. This is her story.
What are your duties at your hospital?
I’m a PCA, which is a patient care associate, and that’s basically a nurse’s assistant. I’m not an RN but I do many of the same things that the RN’s do, except I don’t give meds and I don’t do assessments. But I do all the direct care for the patients. I’m on the float team which means I can be anywhere in the hospital. I’m very hands-on with the patients. There’s no social distancing in my job, so we are very well protected.
What are your hopes for today and the future?
I hope that people stop being afraid. Everyone is scared. Every time someone says, “I’m positive for the COVID virus,” people think it’s a death sentence. I’m really trying to make people feel like this can only be like a cold to some people. But yet I want them to stay safe, because for that few people it really is awful, so I’m hoping that fear component goes down. I’m really hoping this teaches us about germ control and distancing, but also how important we are to each other and how hard it is to stay away from each other — and to not take things for granted anymore, because they’re being taken away from us now.
How has your life changed since the coronavirus struck?
We’re still going to work the same as we always have. Our children are pretty introverted and they all do their own thing. We’re still trying to get together and do game nights and that kind of thing just so we can stay together. It gets a little challenging when they all have to be in school at the same time. The tricky thing is that we do live with my mother, who is 82, and I’m worried about her getting the virus, because it could be very dangerous for older people. That’s our challenge. My husband and I try to stay at least six feet away from her and I try to wipe things down. I’m very careful when I come home. I take off all my clothes in the garage and I run upstairs and take a shower.
How has this changed your view of your profession, and your larger community?
I’m really impressed with the teamwork that’s there. And we all have this sort of attitude of, “OK, we’re going in, we’re fighting this battle, we’re trying to be strong,” and we’re constantly checking in with each other and making sure that we’re OK. That’s been nice. In terms of the community, I had to get milk on my way home from work, and the looks that you get when you wear scrubs into a grocery store are not that nice [laughs], they’re kind of like, “Oh my god, what are you doing here?” While everybody’s celebrating us, if they actually see us, they want to stay far away from us.
What are you listening to?
The iHeartRadio Broadway station. If I’m by myself that’s what I listen to because I like to sing along. I grew up with music; I studied it when I was younger and my father’s a jazz musician. Music has always been around me. I sing to my patients all the time. Usually I have older patients, so a lot of times I fall back on “You Are My Sunshine” or things that would be a little bit upbeat. If I can tell that they’re religious because they’re calling out to God, then sometimes I’ll sing “Amazing Grace.” Sometimes the patients sing along with me.
