Catherine is the outpatient clinic coordinator for general internal medicine.
“I had to work hard to get our clinics changed to a virtual workflow. Normally, we always see patients face to face. We also worked quickly to set up separate clinic space where we could see COVID positive outpatients to help prevent the spread of the virus.
I think that patients have been really relieved that they can still have access to their appointments but don’t necessarily need to come into the hospital. It’s working well, but it’s also more work in some ways. Now I have to phone the patient to make sure they’re available. I have to do the paperwork side for the doctors who I’m not necessarily even seeing. And I still have to register each patient to get them into our system.
My husband and I were walking the dog recently and we heard people banging pots and pans. He said, ‘Oh, this is for someone like yourself,’ and I felt really awkward.
At first, I didn’t think of myself as frontline, but I guess I am. My friends think of me as frontline because I’m the closest person they know who’s working in a hospital right now.
A lot of my friends have lost their jobs. My husband has lost his job. I’ve lost my other part time job. Many people are really suffering through this pandemic – so I feel really grateful that I have a job I really enjoy!
My kids are home. They’re doing online schooling. I’m not home during the day so my husband has taken over. It’s taken a lot of stress off of me that when I’m here, I know they’re taken care of.
When I come home, part of me just wants to veg out and de-stress. And part of me wants to participate because I miss them.
I am getting through this by trying to stay really positive.”
