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November 8, 2021
SAYING “YES!” TO PARK CHRISTIAN
I believe God chose Park Christian for us. This is where He has wanted us to be.
At Park, it is determined that school will close indefinitely.
o The Administration and teachers work tirelessly to get school to an online version in what I would call a record time frame of 4-5 days.
o Spring sports are cancelled and the end of the winter season is cut short.
At Home, kids are asking questions, including our foreign exchange student from China.
o China is being watched closely as they have had COVID outbreaks for months now.
o Highly populated cities in the USA are also experiencing high numbers of COVID outbreaks.
o Our foreign exchange student gets continuous communication from his family in China and is pretty nervous to be in an American house with 2 family members working in the hospital.
o Ryan begins work at home, created some office space, and is still there today.
o We moved Anika out of the dorm as MSUM was closing the dorms and going to all online classes.
o Our family makes the decision that Ryan and all the kids will live at the lake for a while and Anika and I will stay in Fargo to continue to work at the medical center.
o No toilet paper to be found in the FM area
o No yeast for baking to found in the FM area
o No March madness, no brackets to study, no games to watch
At work (I work at Sanford as manager of Admission Recovery Unit and Cardiac Cath Lab)
o Beginning to see workflows change, watching national trends of where COVID is and how to plan futuristically
o Planning labor pools of staff to orient in multiple different areas for potential pandemic
o Masks, which have only been worn during sterile procedural cases, are now being asked to be worn by all staff at all times. While we changed our mask after every patient case in the Cath Lab, we are now asked to wear the same one all day long to conserve the masks and prolong what would be a national shortage of masks. All inpatient floor staff would wear the same mask every 5 days and keep their mask in a brown paper bag.
o Theft of masks and hand sanitizer in medical center we removed all hand sanitizer that was not attached to a wall, required daily temps for all staff and visitors, lined visitors, counted masks and units rationed only a certain amount of masks weekly, prepared our teams for patient care in ICU and how to don on PPE (masks, glove, gowns, PAPRs) for COVID cases.
o Locked up masks and handed out daily for Cath Lab staff or every 5 days for my ARU staff
o Preparing the staff mentally of what may be coming, the unknowns of where they may be working and what hours they may have to work, offering support services as needed
o Planning for staff’s daycares to be closing without much notice
o Visitor limitations are now in place; they must check in and wear a badge/sticker to verify temp is taken and symptom free.
o Each unit is asked to give 2-3 staff to commit to help open a COVID unit and work there for a few months
o Surgeons and procedural physicians make decisions on how procedures will be scheduled- what cases are deemed urgent/emergent and what ones need to be postponed or scheduled in 6-8 weeks
o COVID testing is approved by FDA at Sanford, and limited testing has begun to rule out COVID.
At Park
o Summer is here.
o COVID task force is created to begin planning for the 2020-21 school year.
*Will we need to wear masks?
*Waiting till end of July to hear what the state of MN is requiring
*Working on levels of re-entry and when we may need to distance learn/close school
*What does masking look like at school? What effect will this have on the students?
*Band/Choir - can we do this? Lunch protocols, gym, recess, student/teacher numbers per classroom
*Hand sanitizer, bathroom breaks, how to limit kids’ social interactions - what does that look like?
*Bi-weekly emails/communication begin from Mr. Nellermoe to all PCS families as COVID Task Force continues to meet through summer months.
At Home
o The whole family is under one roof after about 2 ½ months.
o Jason, our foreign exchange student, has decided to stay in the U.S. for the summer as the Embassy could not guarantee his return to the U.S. after the summer break.
At work
o Surgical and procedural case numbers begin to increase after being decreased by about 50%
o Streamlining workflows with COVID testing and visitors
o Guidelines have changed so many times as we learn and adjust.
o Flexibility is continuous.
o The uncertainty has taken a toll on some staff.
o Support services are offered to staff who have worked in the COVID unit.
o The amount of time it takes to care for someone in ICU with COVID is tasking mentally, physically, and emotionally.
o Staff have been asked to limit any contact with team members outside of working hours to avoid multiple exposures and try not to eat together at breaks any closer than 6 feet, no potlucks, no finger foods, and find different areas to eat or break.
o Masks and face shields are becoming a normal part of the routine.
o Many staff have been COVID tested and needed to follow the guidelines put in place.
At Park
o 5 days of in person school has begun!!!!! All public schools remain on-line or in a hybrid plan of online/in person teaching.
o Email and video communications from Park administration continues to keep families updated on school events, COVID guidelines, exposures, and MN guidelines.
o Most Fall extra-curricular activities have begun or will begin soon.
o Have a COVID coordinator to be the “go-to” for all things COVID
At Home
o All kids are in school and in person!!!!
o Ryan remains working from home till summer of 2021.
o Jill remains busy at Sanford.
At work
o COVID numbers are low in the hospital.
o Staff return to their home units of those who assisted on the COVID units.
o Some sense of “normalcy” with new workflows, masks worn at all times, all staff wearing one mask per day
o Continue to track national COVID numbers as Influenza season in approaching
At Park
o Zero days of having to close school for COVID outbreaks, that is a Park success story!!
o Zero exposures of COVID at the school, that is a Park success story!!
o Minimal quarantining of teachers and students from an outside exposure or family member exposed or COVID positive
o Masks remain a required part of school, and the students have adapted and adjusted well.
o COVID Task Force continues to meet to discuss guidelines and state of MN recommendations.
At Home
o All kids have remained in school this entire semester with activities and in person teaching!!!
At Work
o COVID admission numbers are at an all-time high, about 120 admissions at the highest point.
o Opened up 2 more COVID units to support the numbers of critically ill patients
o Staff are required to work multiple hours and shifts above their already fulltime hours.
o This is what we were preparing for in the spring; it is here in full swing.
o COVID vaccine becomes available for front line staff
At Park
o Kids remain in school 5 days a week and have ZERO days of on-line or mandated social distance learning due to COVID.
o Extra-curricular activities are continuing with limited fan capacity.
At Home
o Kids remain in school and in activities.
o Ryan remains working at home.
o Jill continues work at Sanford Health.
At Work
o All time low in COVID inpatient numbers
o All staff and visitors continue to wear masks.
o Doing and redoing the COVID guidelines for a year now, we know flexibility.
o Support services continue with some staff who have PTSD from caring for the COVID population- the exhaustion, mental wear and toll it has taken on otherwise “healthy” RNs is painful to see.
We - as a community, school, family, and nation - continue on our COVID journey. We all have been affected by the Coronavirus in one way or the other, positive and negative. The bullet points above are what I experienced as a mother, wife, and nurse. Some moments are hard to describe and bring tears to my eyes, while there are times that were so much fun, and I had joy that I wouldn’t have experienced if COVID had not come raging in. And above all else, this still holds true today: we serve a God who holds the whole world in His Hands. As I assisted with coaching boys’ basketball this year, this was our theme verse: We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; character, hope. (Romans 5: 3-5). In all honesty, going through difficulties or “sufferings” is not enjoyable, but I do have this peace that passes all understanding. The support of our Park Christian family has permeated in so many ways this year, and God has blessed us richly with school 5 days per week and healthy kids and teachers, and we have persevered through it all. Thank you to all of our families who helped by keeping their children home when they didn’t know if they had a cold or another virus. Thank you to the administration and teachers for grace and guidelines and love. This is what Family is and does for each other.
Jill Carlson, PCS COVID Task Force
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