Nurses on the frontlines

Students’ jobs put them at the heart of a pandemic

By California State University, Bakersfield

May 18^th, 2020

Every student at California State University, Bakersfield has been affected by the quarantine brought about by COVID-19. They are finishing classes online, finding creative ways to safely celebrate the end of the term and dealing with doing virtually everything from home.

One group who has especially felt the impact of the coronavirus is the students in the graduate nursing program. Not only are they finishing their coursework online to become family nurse practitioners, they are also fighting the virus on the frontline in intensive care units, emergency rooms and other healthcare facilities as working nurses.

“While they are working on the frontline as healthcare providers, they are still keeping up with all their course requirements,” said Dr. Heidi He, director of the graduate nursing program. “I am very proud of them and how they are able to meet all the requirements even with this crisis going on. They have demonstrated true commitment to their education and their profession.”

As students, they are part of a program that is following all state guidelines on distance learning to lessen the risk of the virus, even doing computer simulations and telehealth to complete clinical hours that would typically be done in person. As working nurses, however, they regularly don masks, gloves and any other required personal protective equipment to continue their mission of helping those in need.

Mariana Arambula-Damián is one of 19 students graduating from the nurse practitioner program in spring 2020. The first-generation college student currently works in Adventist Health Bakersfield’s Intensive Care Unit, where she has recently cared for COVID-19 patients.

“I have held a lot of hands (with gloves on),” Arambula-Damián, 28, said. “I have assured my patients that they are not alone and that I am with them and that we’re doing everything in our power to see them out of the ICU in better condition. I have had to deliver bad news to family members … I have seen people graduate and leave the ICU successfully, and I have sweated a lot! Patient care in full personal protective equipment (PPE) is sweaty business.”

The experience of working during a pandemic first included a lot of fear, she said – for her own life, for her family, for her colleagues and for the community. But all of what she has done at work so far, she noted, are things nurses deal with every day even in better times.

“We come in and we dedicate 12 hours on our feet to ensure that every need of our patient is met,” she said. “We help each other, we vent to each other and we cry with each other, and sometimes we go home wondering how our patients are doing and if we will see them the next morning or not. But we get up, collect ourselves and do it all over again for them – our patients.”

Rebecca De La Torre is another member of the program’s 2020 cohort and has been in the medical field for 15 years. For the last six years, she has worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs, where she serves veteran patients. She agreed with her classmate, saying the job is the same as before the health crisis, just with increased precautions.

“Nurses continue to do what they know best: to serve, to promote healing, to adapt, to care, to remain dedicated to lifelong learning and change,” De La Torre, 36, said.

“In my clinical setting, we continued to do all of these things and increased telehealth virtual care and phone visits to continue to accommodate our veterans. We still saw patients face to face when warranted with appropriate PPE to protect the patients and ourselves.”

De La Torre, a first-generation American and the first in her family to graduate college, said she’s doing well during this unprecedented time. Though she has her hands full with work, school and five of her six kids at home along with her husband, she said she is her same happy, optimistic and calm self.

“I try to make it a point to do something every day that makes me happy,” she said, like listening to music and baking with her kids. “I have more time to focus on my family. I had more time to complete my clinical hours after work and on the weekend. It has made me more efficient with time management. It made me a better person, a better mom, a better nurse, and I will strive to be an even better nurse practitioner.”

Arambula-Damián is getting by with some help from technology, keeping in touch with her family and friends via Zoom. She and her sisters even had a virtual cooking lesson with their mother, making chiles rellenos. She’s grateful to be able to see their faces, even through a screen.

“I have felt so much love,” said Arambula-Damián. “Not only from my partner at home, who has literally kept me sane through the innumerable ups and downs of uncertainty, hope, anxiety, and hope again, but from the entire community.”

Both Arambula-Damián and De La Torre said the experience of being a working nurse and graduate student during a pandemic has taught them that they are more resilient than they thought they were. The faculty members supporting these students and their classmates along the way always knew they had it in them.

“They are on the frontline,” Dr. He said. “They have chosen this profession, they know there are certain times that there are risks. They are all still working. This is true professionalism. They are heroes. I am glad that they are joining the nurse practitioner profession. We are proud to have them as our NP colleagues.”

When they make it out on the other side of this health crisis, the graduate nursing students will know they can handle whatever their careers throw at them.

“I don’t feel like a hero, I feel like a nurse,” Arambula-Damián said. “This is what we do, and we are proud to do it.

She added: "I have learned that I deserve a place at the table even when and especially during those times that I feel that imposter syndrome. I know that as long as I work hard and stay persistent, I will be the best nurse practitioner I can be for my patients – even when a global pandemic breaks out!”