National Nurses Week: North country nurses reflect on working through the pandemic, importance of nurses

May 12—WATERTOWN — In the ever-evolving world of health care, one thing has remained constant through the years: nurses are an integral part of the health care system. They keep things running smoothly and put patients at ease during tough times.

In January 1974, the International Council of Nurses proclaimed May 12 as International Nurses Day. In February of that same year, a week was designated by the White House as National Nurses Week, with President Richard M. Nixon issuing a proclamation. Each year since, National Nurses Week has begun May 6 and ends May 12 — Florence Nightingale's birthday.

Through the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, nurses continued to care for the sick, help bring new life into the world and comforted those who were leaving it when their family members couldn't be there. This year, during National Nurses Week and the days leading up to International Nurses Day, north country nurses across emergency, maternity, podiatry and other departments reflected on nursing amid a global pandemic, the importance of nurses and why they remain in love with their profession despite the challenges.

Nursing through a pandemic

Jennifer H. Hodgson, a Samaritan Medical Center Emergency Department nurse, said there's always the unknown when it comes to emergency medicine — you never know what you're going to walk into.

Having to always be prepared for anything, the pandemic has increased this tenfold, she said. This is because COVID-19 presents various ways depending on the patient, so nurses have to prepare for all sorts of different circumstances.

"I personally have taken care of numerous COVID patients," Mrs. Hodgson said. "I've seen positive outcomes from very critically ill patients to terrible endings."

Mrs. Hodgson has been a nurse with Samaritan for the last six years, having received her associate's degree in nursing while in Kentucky before her family was stationed at Fort Drum. She said it's been a ride for the last year or so working during a pandemic and serving both civilians and military personnel who make up the community.

"I, on a personal level, love this community, civilian and military side, and I think we really have come together to try to make it — at least on the taking care of people's physical, mental and emotional well being — as positive as we can knowing the constraints the pandemic has brought us in the health care field," Mrs. Hodgson said.

Megan L. Rossignol, has been a nurse for the past six years and has been with Carthage Area Hospital for three of them, working in orthopedics. She said that while the pandemic was obviously not something the hospital could have anticipated or prepared for ahead of time, the staff adapted and did the best it could given the circumstances.

She said the most difficult part of the pandemic, for her, was having to remain extra vigilant for fear of bringing the virus home.

"We also had to deal with employees being out because they were sick, so we all had to pull together as a team to really fill in those gaps and make sure that we were still taking care of patients as best we could," she said.

Toward the beginning of the pandemic, medical professionals received emails asking people to go down to New York City to help with the influx of COVID patients, which was something Ms. Rossignol said she was willing to do because her job as a nurse is to help those who need it.

Nurse Shannon E. Der has been working for the Lewis County Health System for eight years as a registered nurse and has been in the Lewis County General Hospital Emergency Department for about six of them.

She said what she enjoys about her job is that she can help people feel safe and comfortable, help them feel like they're cared for even if they're possibly having one of the worst days of their life.

"When they come in so sick it's hard to know," Ms. Der said of working with patients amid the pandemic. "Maybe there is something you can do to help them, maybe there's nothing more that you can do to help them, but it's an amazing feeling knowing that you helped someone in their time of need."

Important work

Virginia L. Rose describes nurses as the "first line" — the first people patients see when they go in to the hospital.

She started working in podiatry at Carthage Area Hospital in October 2019, but has been a nurse for a total of eight years so far.

"We're getting all their information and making sure that the doctors are aware of what's going on with them," Ms. Rose said. "Making sure that they understand we're here to help them so that they're not worried about what's next."

Shaylee E. Morczek, a nurse with the Lewis County Health System, has been there for three years and now strictly works in the intensive care unit at Lewis County General Hospital.

Ms. Morczek said she went into nursing because she respected the raw vulnerability people had when they were sick and how they really had to trust someone who was taking care of them. She said she felt like she was going to be good in that role.

"One of my teachers told me a quote when we were in school: 'You can't have a house without a foundation and you just can't have a hospital without a nurse,'" she recalled. "I think that nurses are a solid backbone of the hospitals. We really will do just about anything to help our patients."

Lexy A. Fleury, a Massena Hospital Ambulatory Surgery Department nurse, recalled when her father was in kidney failure and dealing with other issues such as heart disease. She said he had wonderful nurses taking care of him.

"You have to have a really incredible strength," Ms. Fleury said of what it takes to be a nurse. "Not just physically, but emotionally. Sometimes the patients really pull at your heart, they're in rough situations, and that's probably the hardest part because it takes an emotional toll on a nurse."

She said the best part is when they are able to make a strong connection with a patient, building up a good rapport with them to create an all around positive experience.

"I don't think that there's really anything that would deter me away from being a nurse," she said. "I always had great nurses for my family and to work underneath when I was training and when I was a student nurse."

Fulfilling career

Nicole R. Simmons, a nurse in the maternity ward at Samaritan Medical Center, has been a nurse since 1990 and has stayed with the same hospital the entire time. She said the thing she loves about nursing is that you learn to take care of people, not problems.

"You don't treat the lady with a broken arm in room four, you treat Mrs. So-and-So, who hurt her arm while she was tripping over her son's toy," she said. "You treat the whole person — you treat what's injuring them, but you also treat them emotionally and psychologically as well as physically."

Ms. Simmons said one of the most rewarding parts of nursing, is seeing the progress patients make, especially in maternity. She said she works a lot in the neonatal intensive care unit, as well as with mothers and babies. Seeing how strong, how resilient they are, and to get to be around and help teach people how to take care of a family at home — that's the most rewarding thing, she said, making somebody's life a little easier.

Alicia L. Otis, a registered nurse for the past five years, started her nursing career at Canton-Potsdam Hospital on the medical surgical floor before landing her dream job as a labor and delivery nurse. Before that, she was a waitress and learned a lot about serving all kinds of people.

She said she knew at about age 19 that she wanted to still serve people, just in a different way.

"I always admired nurses and knew right away when I started nursing school that I was right where I was meant to be," she said. "I was constantly reminded by nursing instructors, nurses, the patients I took care of as a student nurse that I was a natural, which then pushed me to strive to be the best student nurse and advocate that I could be."

Working with the family dynamic of nursing, Mrs. Otis said she not only takes care of mothers, she also takes care of their partners and the child that's coming into the world. Having been on the receiving end of maternity care, she said she understands that it's one of the most vulnerable times for women, which is why it's so important to her to be the advocate for them during that time.

Maureen E. Woods, a nurse since 2012, is enjoying her second career at Gouverneur Hospital in the medical surgical unit, which is also a detox unit.

"I always try to tell the rest of the staff that when I look at a patient, I consider them my family. I think, 'How would you want your loved one taken care of?' And I take that with me every day when I go to work," she said. "I truly believe that works best because when people feel important and listened to, cared for, they thrive."