AnnaMaria Masteller’s nursing career
began March 23, 2020. She had expected her first year of nursing to be
challenging, but she hadn’t expected to start at Inova Fairfax Hospital during
a global pandemic. As with other health care professionals, she’s had to juggle
learning about a new disease and treating patients who are separated from their
loved ones while trying not to contract or spread the virus.
But Masteller and other local Catholic
nurses and doctors say their faith has made the difference in the midst of
hardship and uncertainty. “I just don’t know how I would do it if I didn’t have
this understanding that God is in control,” said Masteller, a parishioner of
St. James Church in Falls Church. “I feel like I have this little secret that I
get to take with me every day, that I have this huge, powerful God on my side
even though I’m just this new nurse.”
Sabrina Judy, a nurse at Medstar
Hospital Center in Washington and a parishioner of Our Lady of Angels Church in
Woodbridge, usually works on an advanced heart care unit. But since the
COVID-19 outbreak, all of her staff has floated at least once to take care of
patients on the COVID-19 wing. The patients she cared for had come from nursing
homes and a group home, and for reasons unrelated to COVID-19, all of them were
nonverbal. “It was one of my busiest days I’ve had,” she said.
Dr. Anita Maybach’s routine also has
been altered by the pandemic. Maybach works at a general practice office, in
the emergency room of Fauquier Health Hospital and as the medical director of Heartland
Hospice in Warrenton. At Heartland, she and the staff can no longer meet in
person to grieve for the patients who die. At the doctor’s office, she meets
patients outside in their cars if they’re experiencing viral symptoms. “I’m
exposed at the ER all the time, so I don’t want the rest of my office staff or
my patients exposed,” said Maybach, a parishioner of St. John the Evangelist
Church in Warrenton.
The COVID-19 patients she sees experience
overwhelming fatigue, shortness of breath, nausea, a dry cough and occasionally
a rash, among other symptoms. “The hard thing about COVID right now is we treat
the symptoms but every day we’ve got to review what we’ve learned,” she said.
“Six months ago, in the whole history of this world as far as we know this
virus didn’t exist, so every day different treatment ideas come out.”
In addition to the physical maladies,
many doctors and nurses also tend to the emotional needs of their patients. “I
see patients struggle a lot with the isolation,” said Katie Ellefson, a nurse
at Inova Fairfax who attends St. Rita Church in Alexandria. “They are cooped up
in their rooms with only us to interact with throughout the day and night,
which is incredibly lonely. It's easy to get caught up in all the tasks we have
to complete but I've found how grateful these patients are to just have us in
there to chat for a little bit about their lives and families, things they are
worried or stressed about.”
Communication is difficult when covered
head to toe with personal protective equipment, but the health care workers are
grateful to have it. Judy said she had an ample supply of personal protective
equipment when she rotated to a COVID-19 wing. Maybach says she is given one
N95 mask for many shifts but wears different masks on top of it. She disinfects
a pair of reusable goggles, and also has access to caps and gloves. Masteller
is given a surgical mask and fresh scrubs to wear when she arrives at the hospital.
She adds more layers as the risk increases.
“When we go into a (COVID-19) patient’s
room, we put a gown on, gloves and then these helmet type things, basically
like a huge face shield,” she said. “When we come out, we take off those gowns,
we throw them away in a special trash can.”
Even with all the precautions, the
health care workers know they could carry the disease home. Maybach and her
husband, who is also an ER doctor, considered sending their two teenage girls
to live with relatives nearby. “But we weren’t sure how long it would last, and
we just decided that as a family, we’d all just rather be together,” she said.
“Every day when I leave the ER, I think to myself, thank God for the things
that I have and thank God for the things that I don’t have.”
Masteller feels grateful to be serving
others during the crisis. “It’s scary to see people in this condition, but
people are getting better and leaving the hospital, so that is a (sign of)
hope,” she said. “It does feel good to be able to be there with them and taking
care of them, instead of at home, not even knowing what a COVID patient looks
like.”
Ellefson sees her work as something given
to her by God. “There has been a lot of panic and fear that has resulted from
this. I think it would be very easy to feel the effects of that more if I
didn't have faith and trust that God put me here in this moment to do what I
can to help the patients in my care in whatever small ways I can,” she said. “We
are given countless opportunities every shift to brighten the lives of
patients. And that makes my job very rewarding.”