‘We’ll get through this together’

Sandy VanKirk-Hall became a nurse later in life. While raising her children, she witnessed a serious car accident and stopped to help. While everyone was alright, she couldn’t stop thinking about how that could have been her family.

Not long after, she started her path to becoming a nurse.

“Knowing that I’m making a patient’s day as best as possible makes me feel good,” said VanKirk-Hall. “In the little time that I’m there, I can make a difference.”

VanKirk-Hall is now a nurse in the MedSurge Unit at Aurora Medical Center Washington County. She sees more COVID patients now then earlier in the pandemic.

“We didn’t have many COVID patients in the beginning, but that’s really changed in recent weeks,” she said.

The experience of working with COVID patients can be extremely tiring, both emotionally and physically. VanKirk-Hall choked up as she told story after story about connecting patients with family members through Zoom, phone calls or FaceTime just so they could say hello. In some cases, those calls were their only chance to say goodbye.

“I lost my mom a year ago in April. I thank God that it was before COVID because it would have been very hard to not be there with her,” said VanKirk-Hall. “I know not being with their loved ones is very difficult when they may be taking their last breath. I don’t want anybody to be alone.”

For VanKirk-Hall, that has meant doing whatever she can to give families a chance to say goodbye. She even Facetimed one patient’s daughter.

“The patient, with tears in his eyes, thought it was the coolest thing that he could see his family and they could see him,” she said. “It was so rewarding to see him smile. It was tears of joy and so much more.”

The pandemic has taken a toll on her and her team. VanKirk-Hall misses being able to hug her teammates and gather outside of work.

“The pandemic has been hard because I’m such a hugger. The social distancing that we have to do at work is very difficult,” she said. “The team I work with is an amazing group, it’s like we’re a family, I am thankful that I work with such compassionate, supportive and hardworking people. We’ll be there to support each other and let each other cry a little, whatever they need. We text one another a lot after work just to make sure everyone is doing ok . We’ll get through this together.”

As the amount of cases surge, VanKirk-Hall said prayer and hugs from her family help her get through it. She asked the community to help how they can. “Wear the masks for us, for the people on the front lines.”

“For those people who have loved ones in the hospital, know that those patients aren’t alone. We’re doing the best we can to be with them and give them the best care we can,” she said. “Wear the masks for us, for the people on the front lines.”