“It is actually giving me a new sense of purpose, helping out,” Katherine King, RN, says of her time working in The Elliot’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Typically, she works in Endoscopy at The Elliot, but decided to volunteer to work in the ICU. “I volunteered to be redeployed to the ICU because I came in one day to help them out over the New Year’s holiday and they were so busy. I felt bad for my colleagues, so I just kept on coming,” King says.
She started working in the ICU on January 1 and continued to help out for two full weeks, taking a full assignment just like the ICU nurses.
“I feel comfortable being in the ICU because I previously worked there, so it’s like a second home to me,” King explains.
To protect her husband and herself, King says she changes her clothes before she leaves work and when she gets home, she takes a shower immediately.
King is among the hundreds of employees across SolutionHealth who have been vaccinated against COVID-19. That, along with proper PPE, constant hand-washing, and social distancing measures, have kept her safe from contracting the virus herself, but she worries about her husband. “My husband is going to get vaccinated when it’s his chance, because he works in a supermarket. So, he hasn’t been able to stay home. He’s on the front lines as well. So, as soon as he’s able to, he will be vaccinated,” King adds.