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Year of the Nurse - November 2020 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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K elly Hull, RN, describes herself as a creature of habit. The surgical nurse at Advocate South Suburban Hospital in Hazel Crest, Ill., enjoyed a 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. schedule that ran like clockwork. She always knew where she was going to be, the surgeons she would be working with and what was going to be happening. But that all changed in March when COVID-19 cases were on the rise throughout the United States. When elective surgeries were shut down, she was redeployed to the hospital's COVID-19 emergency room tent. "I was working with people I didn't know, and had to learn a new charting system," says Ms. Hull. "My thinking had to change because the ER and the OR are two different worlds. It took about a week to get acclimat- ed. As a nurse, you just have to go do it. You enter the mode of it is what it is." Ms. Hull worked in the COVID tent for about a month and then was asked to be on the hospital's prone team. "Research found that positioning patients on their stomach would help open up their lungs, so a group of us formed a team to turn patients who were intubated in the ICU," she says. "The patients would be on their stomachs for 12 to 16 hours, and we had to be very careful when we flipped them because they were intubated." Even as elective surgeries resumed, Ms. Hull did- n't shy away from change and new challenges. She took her talents to the pre-procedure testing trailer, where she spent two months working outside, swabbing patients for COVID-19 before their proce- dures. "We had on all of our protective gear," she says. "Some days it reached 90 degrees." She plans to go back to her pre-COVID routine 2 6 • O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 0 next month, but only after she finishes learning the health system's new patient record system and training fellow surgical nurses in its third wave of deployment. Ms. Hull used to avoid breaking her comfortable routines, but now realizes she can tackle whatever life and work throw her way. She feels the same way about her colleagues: "Our biggest accomplish- ment was our ability to adapt to change." One thing she really hopes COVID-19 has changed is the way people view nurses and every- one who works in health care. "I would often hear people say, 'this is what they signed up for,' but at the end of the day, no one was prepared for a pan- demic," comments Ms. Hull. "You go into nursing because you love taking care of people. But just because we're nurses doesn't mean we don't get scared just like everybody else." — Danielle Bouchat-Friedman READY FOR ANYTHING Kelly Hull found inspiration outside of her comfort zone when the coronavirus outbreak forced the cancelation of elective cases. John Martin-Eatinger, Advocate Aurora Health Embracing Change During the Pandemic

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