Terri Taylor is spending her holiday season quarantined in a hotel room an hour away from her family in Fredericton.
The licensed practical nurse spent the past few weeks volunteering to help care for COVID-positive residents at Shannex Parkland Saint John.
Taylor, who works at Shannex’s Thomas Hall nursing home in Fredericton, said it was her chance to “pay it forward” after the company helped her family earlier this year.
Back in January, Taylor’s oldest son was struck by a vehicle during a snowstorm in Fredericton. He was rushed to the Saint John Regional Hospital in serious condition, where he spent several months recovering.
“We ended up being here for a couple of months and this particular campus, this Shannex, is the one that put me up for the entire time,” Taylor said in a phone interview. “Their shuttle drove me everywhere, they gave me a place to stay. They really, really, really were pivotal in me remaining at my son’s side.
“When all of a sudden the opportunity presented itself to pay back a little of that, naturally, I took it after some serious thought and prayer.”
‘It Was Incredible’
Taylor was a stranger at Parkland Saint John when she arrived on Nov. 26, but that soon changed as she spent long days and nights — sometimes doing 16-hour shifts — with her new coworkers and the residents they were caring for.
They all worked in a “cohorting unit,” where residents who tested positive for COVID-19 were cared for by staff dedicated to that area.
“The staff, they were the easiest group of individuals I’ve ever had to gel with,” said Taylor. “You need a lot of trust in one another in a situation like that, but you’re not given the luxury of time to develop that trust, so you just offer your trust freely and hope for the best. It was incredible.”
But it was not just the staff who worked in the cohorting unit who will leave a permanent mark on Taylor.
She said each and one of the residents — who referred to her as the “nurse from Fredericton” — touched her heart in one way or another.
“The residents were all lovely, and strong, oh my land,” she said. “They’re the ones who fought this. The resiliency and strength that they had was just amazing.”
“There was definitely a sense of lonesomeness at first, but in no time our management team was sending us care package things to try to pass their time with, things to keep their mind busy. We just all made the best of a really rough situation.”
There have been 20 cases connected to Parkland Saint John to date: 11 residents, eight employees and one non-Shannex employee.
One resident being cared for in the cohorting unit passed away, but Shannex and Public Health said their death was not caused by COVID-19.
Spending The Holidays In Quarantine
While the experience has been career-defining for Taylor, she said it has been difficult being away from her family for so long, especially over the holidays.
“I think the hardest part for them was that I would be gone for my daughter’s birthday and, of course, over the holidays,” she said. “It’ll certainly be one we won’t soon forget.”
Once the cohorting unit closed Dec. 17, Taylor and the other staff were forced into a 14-day quarantine at a local hotel. They are not allowed to see one another or go outside.
“I think we’re all going to be a little batty by the end of this,” she said with a laugh. “One of the other staff, we have little door dates. If we happen to be at the door at the same time, we’ll kind of just wave and say hello. It’s pretty sad that that’s our only human contact.”
But Taylor said she would do it all over again in a heartbeat — and she knows her family would support her.
She said there was a lot of fear and uncertainty in the beginning, especially with her oldest son and his recent injury, but her family was happy and understood why she wanted to volunteer.
“It was certainly one of the highlights of my own nursing career to get to work with such a strong and amazing team and to really just watch those residents get better.”
Follow
