“Right now, I’m worried about our staff here at the hospital. Everybody wants to do the right thing, and they’ve been through a lot over the last 18 months. And it looked better for a little while, and I really appreciate all the support that was here for healthcare workers of all kinds back in March of 2020, April of 2020, which was overwhelming. I think about the hospital being surrounded with the community, prayers, music, honking horns – it was emotional times for all of us and the support was just incredible. And then when I think about that now – and, really, the community was looking for more. What more can we do? We were fed, well, showered with gifts, goody bags across the hospital, and felt so loved. And we’re still loved. But right now, I think about that was all that the community could do, to come and surround us with love. And now, I feel like that love for and want to support for our healthcare workers and those going through this and had been through this and continue to go through this every day, that are concerned about the spike and concerned can we do this, can we keep doing this.

“What the community can do to help us now is to get vaccinated. We now have that as an option. We now have a way out. It doesn’t have to be like this. It doesn’t mean that you won’t get COVID, but it definitely means that it won’t be as severe, and it won’t put as much risk on healthcare workers who have to be here and want to take care of the people. But that puts the healthcare workers at more risk again.

“So, if you want to wrap your arms around a nurse, a respiratory therapist, a lab technician – if you want to wrap your arms around a healthcare worker, then do it by getting the vaccine.”

Katrina Wood, RN, MSN, CNML, Interim Chief Nursing Officer