Caring for all

And when the pandemic hit, nurses took on even greater responsibility

Contributed by the Wright Center
Posted 5/2/23

And when the pandemic hit, nurses took on even greater responsibility

NORTHEAST PA — It has been more than three years since COVID-19 charged into the region. 

Very little was known …

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Caring for all

And when the pandemic hit, nurses took on even greater responsibility

Posted

NORTHEAST PA — It has been more than three years since COVID-19 charged into the region. 

Very little was known about the virus. There was no documentation on how to treat it or how to prevent its spread. Medical facilities were independently developing protocols on the fly to treat their patients while protecting their staff. 

At the Wright Center for Community Health Mid Valley Practice in Jermyn, Nurse Manager Tiffany Richmond and Assistant Nurse Manager Raelynn McCafferty were instrumental in developing COVID-19 protocols for the Wright Center’s care teams to follow.

They talked about their experiences in the pandemic for National Nurses Month, which is observed in May.

Both women served on the center’s COVID-19 Task Force and received high praise from their colleagues for their work and their patient-centered approach to care throughout the pandemic.  

“Tiffany and Raelynn represent the very best of our nurses. They did a tremendous job leading our nurses in keeping our friends, families and communities safe, regardless of the challenges they faced,” said Jignesh Sheth, M.D., chief medical officer and senior vice president of The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education. “Their professionalism and innovative thinking helped us lead the way in providing our communities with the best care possible under very difficult circumstances.”

 In their own way, both nurses live the Wright Center’s mission to provide patient-centered care every day, a spokesperson said. “We care for everybody in the community, especially the underprivileged,” said Richmond. “They usually do not have access to this level of care. We have so many resources for them besides medical care. We help them secure housing, clothing and food. It is great to be able to help these patients in any way we can.” 

“I stay in primary care because of our patient relationships. We get to know our patients and their family members,” added McCafferty. 

Prior to the pandemic, their roles involved typical primary care nursing duties, including chronic care management, overseeing medications, supervising the transition of care when patients were discharged from the hospital, and ensuring patients came in for their scheduled appointments. 

Once COVID-19 arrived in northeast PA, a new layer of responsibility was placed on their shoulders. 

“Right off the bat, we were low on PPE [personal protective equipment] and thermometers,” said Richmond. “We called around to every store looking for masks and anything we can find for our patients and ourselves. We drove around on weekends and picked up supplies from our family and friends.”

In addition to patient care and taking it upon themselves to find PPE, they worked with other task force members to develop protocols for treating the virus and safeguarding others from it. Combing through the daily updates from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Richmond and McCafferty played an important role in developing the procedures the medical staff followed at the Wright Center for Community Health’s nine clinics in the region when treating COVID-19 cases, the spokesperson said.

Once the vaccines were released, the nurses and medical assistants needed to understand the differences between the vaccines and how they needed to be administered. Richmond and McCafferty were responsible for communicating this critical information throughout the enterprise, including how the vaccines needed to be stored. They made sure not a drop of the vaccine went unused. 

“We did not want to waste any of the vaccines, so we had a list of people to call when we were done distributing vaccines for the day,” McCafferty recalled. “If we opened a vial and only gave out one dose, we found nine other people to give doses to, so nothing went to waste.”

Their attention to detail in developing protocols for the pandemic and communicating those details to their colleagues got the attention of a representative from the Pennsylvania Department of Health during a site visit. “She suggested we create a document and share it with the University of Scranton,” said Richmond “She said it was incredible what our task force was able to accomplish. 

“I am so thankful for all the people who helped. It was definitely a team effort,” added Richmond.

Story contributed by the Wright Center.

wright center, nurses, covid-19, mid valley, task force

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