Item
Work Reality
Title (Dublin Core)
Work Reality
Description (Dublin Core)
My mother has been a healthcare employee for over 20 years. She loves her job and her patients. She is also immunodeficient. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, she was placed on medical leave. After 3 months in isolation, she returned to work to face her new reality. Thankfully, in the time she was at home, her employer acquired ppe and has implemented strict social distancing policies, including teleappoinments. Her employer has been understanding and supportive of her medical needs. And she feels as safe as she can feel when she is at work. But this doesn't mean it is easy. She wears two masks (an N95 mask covered by a secondary mask) and goggles the entire time she works. She has deep seemingly permanent indentations from the ppe on her face. Even with the protection, she still worries about her level of exposure as she comes into contact with 20-30 different patients per day. I have only seen her once since the shelter-in-place orders began in California. And I'm not sure when I'll see her again. I miss her. Her grandkids miss her. When people question why my family is taking the COVID-19 pandemic so seriously, I tell them about my mom. She does not have a choice to stay home or to avoid exposure to the virus. With her condition, she is high risk and could likely die. If I can help her, and many others like her, stay safe during this pandemic, I will do it. Even if it means a great deal of personal sacrifice.
Date (Dublin Core)
July 12, 2020
Creator (Dublin Core)
Karen Joiner
Contributor (Dublin Core)
Shanna Gagnon
Event Identifier (Dublin Core)
HST580
Partner (Dublin Core)
Arizona State University
Type (Dublin Core)
photograph
Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)
English
Healthcare
English
Emotion
English
Social Distance
English
Biography
Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)
PPE
missing family
health care worker
fear
California
immunocompromised
social distancing
Contributor's Tags (a true folksonomy) (Friend of a Friend)
Bakersfield
PPE
health care
essential employees
autoimmune disease
immunocompromised
#healthcareheroes
Collection (Dublin Core)
Healthcare
Linked Data (Dublin Core)
Date Submitted (Dublin Core)
07/12/2020
Date Modified (Dublin Core)
07/25/2020
11/27/2020
08/02/2022
10/05/2024
This item was submitted on July 12, 2020 by Shanna Gagnon using the form “Share Your Story” on the site “A Journal of the Plague Year”: https://covid-19archive.org/s/archive
Click here to view the collected data.