COVID-19 changed the landscape of health care forever. What did not change, is the care and compassion of the frontline caregivers battling this pandemic.

In this episode of Making The Rounds, we spoke with Fiona Chew, a nurse from the Tulsa Oklahoma area, about what made her want to be a nurse in the US after being born and raised in Scotland. She also spoke about volunteering to travel to New Jersey to care for patients during the middle of a COVID surge

Fiona is a cardiac nurse by training and says caring for patients during the pandemic was a challenge, but an overall rewarding experience.

“We got a lot of non-cardiac patients, which was a little bit out of my comfort zone, but again, these people needed to be looked after. So when they come, it’s given me a chance to use my nursing skills, to learn something new, about a different disease…I just like people, and I think that they need to be treated with respect and compassion, because they’re in a place where they’re unfamiliar, they’re sick. We have relatives who are not able to come as often. So we are their family, their friends, their caretaker, so going in compassionate, just makes them feel better.”

Fiona also commended Ardent Health Services for giving her the opportunity to help in a COVID hotspot.

“Ardent is awesome. There was no hesitation. They ensured that we were safe at all times, our chief nursing officer checked with the chief nursing officer from the other hospital to check that we were okay. Ardent also ensured that we has accommodations, not too far from the hospital, because we were in a place where we were very unfamiliar. They made sure that we had everything that we needed and repeatedly checked on us and made sure that we were good – so they were awesome.” 

Listen to Fiona’s story and be on the lookout for the next Making The Rounds.“