Jennifer Rodgers ’92 is working in critical care on the front lines of COVID-19

Jennifer Rodgers '92 is a 23-year veteran nurse at 伯克郡医疗中心, working in critical care on the front lines of COVID-19. She is the mom of three daughters, including Dillon Rodgers ’22.

珍妮的爸爸, who was a driving instructor to MHS students over the years, had a hunch that Jenni would thrive at Miss Hall’s. 在这里, she studied math and science and fell in love with learning, 解决问题, and the ability to think ahead in multiple scenarios — skills useful in the fast-paced ICU, 那里的每一天都不一样.

为中风患者提供护理, 呼吸衰竭患者, 那些服用过量药物的人, 都在戒酒, 或者经历过创伤的人, Jenni is used to seeing difficult cases and death. What is different in this pandemic is the need for nurses to stand in as patients’ surrogate family, the physical transformation of the hospital itself, and the reality that Jenni’s own life is on the line, 太.

MHS Digital Newsroom teacher Liz Kulze talked with Jenni about what it’s like working with patients who have advanced cases of coronavirus, 她是如何应对压力的, 还有她的骄傲之处. 下面是他们谈话的要点.

“To be able to be the one to go into work and take care of these patients and to come out with new ways to treat them and to process new information each day — I feel lucky.” -詹妮·罗杰斯92年毕业

What was the transformation of the hospital like when COVID-19 hit?
It was early March when we had our first patient in critical care, and we had certain rooms dedicated to these patients, 然后我们收到了更多的病例, and we literally revamped the entire unit in almost a day. We set up makeshift negative-pressure rooms for these patients. Basically, you have a room where all the air is going out into the environment. 它没有进入大厅. 之前, we only had only three rooms designated as negative-pressure rooms—a lot of the time we’ll take care of tuberculosis patients in those rooms—and so we 太k ten rooms and transformed them into negative-pressure rooms by taking a fan and plastic tubes and rigging them up so that the air goes into the environment. The doctors even 太k over the waiting room as their offices, and we had to make their offices into patient rooms. Our maintenance department literally did the entire unit in a day.

Everything happened very fast—you’re listening to the CDC and the guidelines are changing throughout the day. You leave work and you come back, and something new has changed...我们穿的是什么装备啊, what type of wipes we’re using to wipe things down, 我们是如何消毒防护服的. You don’t know what to trust, what to not trust, and how to really feel safe. 但作为护士，这是我们的工作. 我不介意照顾这些病人, I just want to have the right protective gear to go into their rooms. 同时, we’re learning about coronavirus and what it does and how it affects the body and how to take care of these patients. There were new treatments and ways of taking care of these patients coming in constantly throughout the months of March and April.

这就像一阵旋风. 压力很大. 这太疯狂了. Unless you’re right there in the thick of it, you can’t really explain it.

What’s been most difficult for you about being on the frontlines of this pandemic?
我见过有人病得很重，然后去世, but the part that’s been the worst for us is that family can’t come in and visit. So, to be talking on the phone with a family member, 他们问的是他们的亲戚, whether their mother or father or aunt and to have to be the person that they’re relying on to get information and to tell the patient that they love them, 这是最难的部分. These patients are so sick and can't have anyone there with them. I can’t imagine what that would be like for family members at home. 但我们有iPad, and the doctor will go into the patient’s room and get the family on the iPad, 这样家人就能看到它们了. Sometimes they can talk and sometimes they can’t, but at least they can see their family members.

另一个挑战是不确定性, 事情的变化有多快, 以及规则是如何变化的, 什么是你能做的，什么是你不能做的. But, I think it's amazing to see how everyone has gotten creative about how to keep things going.

你最自豪的是什么? 
It was nice to see how quickly we adjusted to all of this. 就像, 这是我们得到的, 这就是我们要做的, 这就是我们要做的. Everyone was able to work together to make all of this happen.

I feel proud to be part of the nurses I work with because we really came together as a group and support each other and laugh together and get upset together. BMC的医生们都很出色. To see them put their heart and soul into taking care of these patients is exciting to see.

和, 说起来很奇怪, but it’s kind of amazing to be involved in a pandemic, to be going into work and be a frontline worker and coming out with new ways to take care of patients or communicate with families. 和 then there are the bonds that are being created at work. 也, knowing that there is new information coming out about the coronavirus every single day and that new treatments are emerging from that, and then being able to implement these new treatments is really exciting. 我正忙着呢.