As department manager, Bobbi Ragland has provided leadership in collaboration with Sarah Hartsell and other department employees to disseminate essential, factual, and up-to-date COVID-19 information from the beginning of this challenging pandemic. A nurse compared it to "building the plane while you fly it" with an ever-changing blueprint and fear of crashing. Through Infection Prevention's efforts, everyone who works at or enters Swedish Edmonds understands their role and has the tools to best prevent the spread of COVID-19 and save lives. Their success has been built on their being able to ultimately include everyone who works in the hospital as a part of their team. The following are some examples of their contributions and outcomes.
A challenge taken on by Infection Prevention included critical staff education for proper use of PPE, monitoring proper functioning of PPE and interpretation of local, state, national, and international, CDC interpretation of the constant influx of information. Feedback from hospital staff related to the training provided by the team's teaching plan: "(A Unit Nurse) gave the Rehab Department an in-service on being a safety officer to assist with donning/doffing PAPRs, etc. She did a great job and was very informative."
Problem-solving for frontline caregivers presented its own challenges. When needed PPE supplies were low, Bobbi and Sarah brainstormed and ingeniously came up with ways to make what they had work safely. For example, when inserts for the PAPR hoods were no longer available from the manufacturer, Bobbi and Sarah came up with innovative solutions to modify the hoods in order to maintain the safety and integrity of the equipment. Sometimes this meant going to Home Depot and buying parts such as hose fittings and hard hat suspension systems so PPE hoods fit properly. Their dedication to safety also included assembling 40 PAPR hoods for the Swedish Ballard campus?when they were in need.
During this time, information was coming from multiple sources including caregivers and the community businesses, medical clinics, other Swedish sites, relied on Swedish Edmonds Infection Prevention to answer their questions, provide reliable resources or research the question themselves for the answer. For example, I took 50 voice mail calls off their phone for one day and included were calls were from employees who were concerned about their symptoms being COVID-related, physicians with concerns about patients they had seen in their clinics, department managers with questions about a specific patient, a local pharmacy trying to answer questions from the general public, EMS transfer of patients, etc. Bobbi also supervises two Infection Preventionists at Swedish First Hill and guided them in the COVID challenges of their hospital.
Bobbi and Sarah's vigilance over the safety of Swedish Edmonds staff is reflected in the remarks made by recent DNV surveyors shared by Marianne Klaas: The surveyors "kept finding further evidence of intense planning, responsiveness, adaptability, compassion, teamwork, expertise, and effective outcomes" regarding the pandemic response. It would be difficult for an organization to acquire that kind of commendation without the contributions of everyone and the Prevention Infection Team provided the organization, skills, knowledge, flexibility, and leadership.
There have been many situations of extreme stress and pressure where anger and frustration could have been excused, these two nurses verbally took note of the situations and calmly handled themselves. Hospital staff has witnessed "them going above and beyond to temper expectations with confused staff and have fortified their graces to educate, reiterate, and investigate.
The Infection Prevention department is also the Employee Health department. While there is a lot of overlap, they have continued to provide influenza vaccination clinics and routine health measures for existing and new employees. Also, finding the time to attend multiple meetings within and outside the hospital.
And now that our plane is built and at cruising altitude, Bobbi and Sarah continue to navigate the way through current circumstances as we grow weary of all things COVID-19, encouraging us to remain diligent in keeping ourselves and our patients safe. They have won our trust and gratitude as we move into the future and hopefully a vaccine.
As it was previously stated: We are certain that without The Swedish Edmonds Infection Prevention Team, 'the pandemic at this hospital would have looked different, for the worse, without the guidance, expertise, vigilance, and dedication that these nurses have displayed. Their hard work and service have brought safety and assurance to this campus beyond measure. This team exemplifies Swedish Hospital's mission "to improve the health and well-being of each person we serve" and the core values of compassion, justice, dignity, excellence, integrity, and safety.