Photo courtesy of Monica M. Finifrock.

We hear a lot about frontline nurses and the trauma they’ve endured throughout the year fighting the world’s deadliest pandemic in 100 years. Their stories are harrowing and heroic and shine a much deserved spotlight on the importance of the profession. And yet COVID-19 has touched not only those working in ICUs and EDs—but in every area of health care. Our December In the Community article, “Keeping Calm in the Buffer Zone,” is just one example of a nurse touched by COVID-19 in her daily work.

Community health as a ‘buffer zone.’

When the article opens, author Monica M. Finifrock is on her way to work at a community health clinic in Seattle. It’s April and the pandemic is beginning to take a toll.

I don’t consider myself on the front lines of the pandemic . . . I’m not watching patients take their last gasps of air or making hard decisions about who gets a ventilator and who doesn’t. I’m a community health nurse, and my role during the COVID-19 pandemic is to do exactly what I always strive to do—serve the community.

Calling her clinic a “buffer zone,” Finifrock argues that community health clinics are more important than ever—“a lifeline for people who are healthy or not sick enough to go to the ED.”

After all, as Finifrock says, people are still getting sick, “not just from COVID-19, but also from the flu, bronchitis, and strep. . . People still fall, have accidents, and need to be evaluated . . . People still need to keep their behavioral health appointments for mind and soul care.”

And nurses in this setting are still stretched to their limits. As Finifrock describes upon leaving to go home for the day:

One of the nurses was close to tears when I left the clinic . . . . The stress of possible exposure to the coronavirus, watching the size of our staff decline because so many are sick, and seeing our supplies dwindle is a lot to take in. Though I know a multitude of people are in my shoes, at this moment it feels like the whole world is at home except for me.

Read more about Finifrock’s experience in our December issue (the article will be free until the end of December).