b'| CAREERS GUIDELeadership During the COVID-19 PandemicHow it has changed the way we lead and manageBy Krystina Ostermeyer RN, BSN, CDEA s of this writing, there have been 29,113, 651 reported casesCODE LAVENDERof COVID-19 in the United States.There have been 529,301At Penn Medicine Princeton Health in Plainsboro, New Jersey, the deaths. hospitals nurse advisory council instituted a wellness committee.The The good news? 101 million vaccines have been administered.Thewellness committee put together Code Lavender kits.case rates are going down. According to Sheila Kempf, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, the hospitals chief We have so many people to thank.The general public for wearingnursing officer, the kits included items such as chocolate, tea, stress masks and social distancing.Restaurant workers, grocery store work- balls, lavender essential oil, and cards with motivational sayings. ers, gas station workers for continuing to serve us when we needed foodApproximately 3,000 kits were made and distributed to all hospital and were afraid to leave our homes.Teachers who patiently taughtemployees.our childrenfrom home and/or in-person.Healthcare workers whoKempf says, They went department by department and gave them cared for anyone and everyone, whether their patients had appendicitisout, which I thought was phenomenal.or COVID-19 (or both!)The list goes on and on.As a healthcare worker, I can say, with one hundred percent cer- PROPER TRIAGEtainty, that I have felt much appreciation at certain points of the pan- Mary McGinn BSN, RN is the senior administrative director of patient demic.At other points, it has felt like we had to carry on and it was justlogistics at Northwell Hills Lenox Hill Hospital on Manhattans Upper like any other day, while undergoing the same pressure. East Side.According to Health Leaders Media, McGinn is responsible One thing that has not changed is the unwavering assistance fromfor the overall patient flow strategy, including the internal move-my director.I have felt lucky because my director is a working direc- ments of all admitted patients from numerous portals of entry, the tor.At any given time, he may help me field phone calls from patients,transitions of care within the hospital, and the facilitation and timely assist with my patient load, or simply assist with paperwork. acceptance of external patient transfer requests.I realize that not everyone has the same experience and for that, IAt the height of the pandemic, Lenox Hills ICU capacity grew from am deeply sorry. 48 beds to 123 beds.In order to accommodate such a feat, McGinn Here are some ways that leaders have helped in big ways during thehad to assist with the conversion of step-down beds to ICU beds and ISTOCKCOVID-19 pandemic. moving infusion services beds to an outlying facility.www.elitecme.com |2021| CAREERS GUIDE 13'