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Above photo: San Luis Obispo County in California created an Alternate Care Site for COVID-19 patients who have been hospitalized and aren’t ready to return home. The first phase accommodated 165 patients and additional phases can go up to 900 patients. Cuesta Community College nursing students practiced appropriate PPE for the care of COVID-19 patients with clinical faculty, Cary Lou Martinson, BSN ’70.

Lindsey Kaupa, DNP ‘19, and Christine Larson, BSN ‘04, served at a Hennepin Healthcare COVID testing site. Together they evaluated patients for potential COVID infections, collected specimens for testing and cared for those who were confirmed COVID positive or had new or worsening symptoms.

Jeanne Pfeiffer, faculty ad Honorem, was deployed by the University of Minnesota Medical Reserve Corp to assist the state Homeland Security and Emergency Management purchasing agents in obtaining credible personal protection equipment products.

In April, Julie Nisco, a hospice nurse, saw patients having difficulty accessing COVID-19 testing. So Nisco, a DNP Bentson Scholar, living in California, first began volunteering and then was hired to manage a drive-thru testing site in in Orange County called COVID Clinic, operated by a disaster-relief nonprofit called CORE.

Brittney Dahlen, BSN ’14, helped Mayo Clinic launch two telehealth programs for COVID-19 patients in two weeks. “With COVID-19, we saw everything on an accelerated timeline,” says Dahlen, an ambulatory nurse manager for the Center for Connected Care Remote Patient Monitoring Program at Mayo Clinic. “We’re helping conserve personal protective equipment through eConsults and Bedside app tablets, keeping patients at home and connecting them with their care team via video visits, so we knew we needed to develop the program quickly.”

Harn Chiu, a DNP student, typically works as a nurse educator in the operating room for Mount Sinai Hospital in East Harlem. But when New York City became the nation’s epicenter for the coronavirus outbreak, she was reassigned to assist in training nurses who were redeployed to serve on COVID-19 floors. “The lack of a clear understanding of how this virus works made the first few weeks very difficult to get through,” says Chiu. “While it has been difficult, I also feel incredibly lucky that I’ve been able to witness the resilience, dedication, creativity and goodwill that really keeps this city together.”