Portrait of a Tender (#4) - Erin - Labor and Delivery

 Erin was first drawn to a career in tending mother earth and her flora and fauna.  She worked for several years at the Wildlife Center of Virginia before switching gears and heading back to school. Her pathophysiology class turned her attention to nursing, and she flew off to Tanzania shortly after to help with a group called Cross Cultural Solutions and further flesh out her plans in nursing.  While working in Africa she found herself attending a woman in childbirth, quite by accident and necessity. Erin delivered the newborn safely and sagely, and her place in nursing was discovered.  "Caring for women during this momentous time in their lives and educating first time moms. That's what I love to do."   For Erin, the generalized fear surrounding Covid has been the most challenging piece of working through the pandemic. Everyone is afraid, the patients, the hospital administration, the nurses, the families... the pandemic has brought more fear into the hospital than ever before.  "Some are managing it well and others are not.  The fear of COVID 19 has changed relationships within families and within communities." It has changed so much about how we interact.   On a nursing care level, Covid related restrictions have come at a cost as well as benefits. One significant challenge has been the necessary safety requirement of laboring women to mask in the presence of healthcare workers. Patients are able to be in their own room unmasked but must mask up when healthcare workers enter. This is a necessary safety measure, and it creates new issues for nursing, especially for those assisting women in labor. Patients and nurses must constantly weigh the pros/cons of laboring unmasked and having their nurse at bedside.      The restrictions have also limited visitors to the unit. For a time, no visitors were allowed at all.  Although disappointing to many families, it also allowed new parents much needed time to rest and get to know their new baby.  It removed any obligations of the parents to people outside of the hospital and "created a little cocoon around the families".  In some ways this was restorative and healthy for new parents and their newborns. 

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 Wildlife Center of Virginia