HEALTH CARE HERO: COVID-19 INTIMIDATING ‘BECAUSE THERE ARE STILL SO MANY UNKNOWNS’
Name: Heather Bowling
Home: Middletown
Job title: Registered nurse, nurse manager
Where do you work: Twin Lakes
Describe what your day is like/what you do: My typical day starts with arriving on my memory support unit. I enter the unit greeting each and every individual I encounter on my way to my office. I communicate with the off-going staff and the oncoming staff to assure that each resident’s needs are being met from shift to shift. I communicate with the families of residents on my memory support unit to assure the families that their loved one is being cared for during this pandemic.
What inspired you to get into health care? I was a state-tested nursing assistant for 10 years, which allowed me to work side-by-side with the residents and nurses. I realized one day that I wanted to give more to the ones I was caring for. I decided with a good friend that we would attend nursing school together.
As a team we applied for school and completed our 10-month program, then we sat for and successfully completed our LPN boards together. So, I inspired myself to get into health care along with a good friend.
What’s a memorable experience you’ve had in health care? The most memorable experience in my career is building strong relationships with the residents and families that I care for on a
daily basis.
What do you want readers to know about your job right now? The things that make me extremely happy as a nurse are knowing I was able to help my residents, whether it was with giving them pain medication, helping them to the bathroom, or assisting them to walk after a meal, or that I made the call to the doctor to inform him/ her of a condition change, and to obtain new orders that would benefit my resident. I love leaving my residents better than they were when I entered the room. I always want to leave my residents with the feeling they are important, and that I heard them and responded with kindness and dignity.
COVID-19 is intimidating because there are still so many unknowns. I personally have not had to care for a patient with it; however, I know nurses who have and are still caring for those patients. We are all in this together, and together we will get through this rough time, and things will slowly get back to normal. Some call us heroes, but honestly, we are doing what nurses have always done: caring for those in need.