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Doing her part

Crimmins serving COVID-19 patients on the East Coast

-Submitted photo
Claire Crimmins, left, is a St. Edmond graduate working as a traveling nurse. She recently completed a contract in Connecticut fighting COVID-19.

HARTFORD, Conn. — Claire Crimmins found herself right smack in the middle of a global pandemic miles from home and in the midst of her first job as a traveling nurse.

How did the St. Edmond graduate handle the situation?

By getting down to work.

“I’ll admit it has been a nerve-racking couple of weeks here on the East Coast, not only as a healthcare worker, but as an everyday citizen,” Crimmins said. “We are currently seeing what this virus is capable of and it is serious. Right now it is just so important for everyone to follow the current CDC and state recommendations no matter where you are at in the country.”

Crimmins and a friend took a 13-week contract here starting in January. When the novel coronavirus started to make waves, she wasn’t quite sure what to think.

-Submitted photo
A number of masks sent to Claire Crimmins to help protect her from COVID-19 are shown. Crimmins, a St. Edmond graduate, said she received 45 sewn masks and a box of N95s from family and friends.

“Honestly, I thought it would be similar to the seasonal flu,” she said. “I very-much so underestimated the impact it would have — especially on the global scale.”

After St. Edmond, Crimmins graduated from Creighton University’s College of Nursing in 2017. She has also worked as a registered nurse at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

While she admits there is “no typical day at work” at this time, the continuing spread of COVID has turned more and more units into dedicated ones for those patients “in the last couple of weeks.”

“Hospital policies and guidelines are changing frequently and it can be overwhelming to stay up to date,” she said. “They are fast tracking critical care training for nurses and also reaching out to nurses with previous critical care experience who have left the bedside to come back and help out.

“We just take it shift by shift.”

That includes continued support from so many in communities fighting this battle.

“The support has been amazing and I am so appreciative of all who have reached out,” Crimmins said. “As healthcare workers, we take care of patients with communicable diseases on a daily basis so it is not so foreign to us. However, in this current pandemic, protocols are rapidly changing and the best way to show your support to healthcare workers is to stay home as much as reasonably possible.”

Despite there still being many unknowns to the virus, Crimmins is confident in her protection and training. She does share the same concerned feelings as many others.

“I’m not all that concerned because I am very fortunate that I have no chronic health conditions and have been given adequate PPE while taking care of confirmed patients,” she said. “During our shifts, we are doing our best to work with the entire healthcare team to cluster all necessary cases in order to limit exposure time and conserve PPE.

“To those worried, I empathize with you and am equally as worried. I understand it is hard to grasp the severity of this pandemic when you do not see the high number of cases in your community first hand. We will get through this if we all do our part and that is the hope I’m hanging onto as I go into each shift.”

Crimmins is currently preparing to work at a new hospital in the North Carolina area.

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