“When the pandemic started, I had been off on sick leave for a few months and hospitalized. I returned to work the same day our facility went into provincial lockdown. Imagine coming back with the uncertainty of COVID-19.
I have to be extra careful as I have a rare disease. Working in a long-term care facility with vulnerable residents, I take extra precautions so that I’m safe and they’re safe when I have interactions with them.
We had two facility outbreaks in early 2021. Quite a number of our staff contacted COVID, and it was really tough for all of us. Our staffing levels were at a critical low point, and we had staff redeployed from other parts of Northern Health and within the province to come to our rescue.
It was scary because we didn’t understand the full complexity of the virus. Everybody isolated and put themselves into individual little bubbles, and our work family was a huge bubble.
Through the two outbreaks, we lost a number of our residents from COVID, which was traumatizing. Going through the grieving with our staff and losing all of these beautiful residents we had spent a lot of time with, and grieving for their families, we were grieving for ourselves as well.
We put structures in place to help our staff and brought in a counselor. They were available to talk to staff, residents and family members, which was really helpful.
The heartbreaking thing people should know is the dedication of the staff – our care aides, nurses, housekeeping staff. Many isolated themselves in order to continue to work. They were frightened and didn’t want to bring anything to their families. They lived in isolation for more than six or eight weeks to be able to do their job and provide service.
As health care workers, we have to do everything we can to be safe for ourselves, our fellow staff members, our families, and our residents. I take that seriously.
I am so blessed to do this work. I work behind-the-scenes and provide support in many ways. I’m glad to be able to help make people’s days more pleasant and more comfortable.”
Terri-Lynne, Reception Admin Support, part of the health care team