Life during covid: North Huntingdon home health care supervisor writes fiction novel to escape stress

Editor’s observe: That is an occasional collection analyzing how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the lives of members of our group.

For the reason that onset of covid-19, there’s been no such factor as a routine residence well being care go to.

Though the unfold of coronavirus has slowed within the area, a North Huntingdon nursing supervisor is busy every day dispatching some 100 nurses and bodily therapists into the properties of sufferers in Allegheny, Washington and Westmoreland counties.

“We’re treating (sufferers) at residence, managing their signs … and maintaining the beds open” within the hospital for these whose situations are worse or produce other illnesses, stated Eleanor “Lena” Nazarei of UPMC Dwelling Healthcare in West Mifflin.

The house well being care business turned important because the covid pandemic unfold, Nazarei stated. As a substitute of sufferers going to a doctor’s workplace when they’re sick, they’re handled of their properties, presumably averting additional unfold of the virus.

Whereas masks, robes and face shields have grow to be customary for her employees, Nazarei stated that has not prevented some nurses from being quarantined, forcing the company to see extra sufferers with fewer workers.

“We’ve had a number of exposures to covid,” Nazarei stated. “We’re doing every little thing we are able to to attenuate the danger, however while you’re a nurse, there’s all the time a danger. The job is looking for sick sufferers.”

On the flip aspect, some sufferers have been fearful a nurse would possibly carry the virus into their residence and canceled appointments.

“Extra individuals who want remedy aren’t getting it within the final 10 months,” Nazarei stated.

Household points and in-home education for kids compound the stress for a lot of well being care business employees, Nazarei stated.

“We’re seeing a really excessive fee of burnout … simply within the first 12 months,” she stated. “It’s such as you’re operating a marathon and also you don’t know the place the end line is.”

Nazarei herself has juggled the calls for of knowledgeable profession and parenthood.

As loopy because the schedule could be and whereas driving round Southwestern Pennsylvania takes its toll, “it’s the solely space of nursing the place you’ve gotten a versatile schedule,” stated Nazarei, who has been a house well being care nurse for six years.

“I used to be capable of be a nurse, elevate my children and go to high school,” she stated. “As (conventional) nurses, we’re accustomed to aggravating 12- to 14-hour shifts and overnights. We overlook that there are higher, wholesome choices for work the place you possibly can nonetheless assist individuals however not sacrifice your loved ones time.”

Nazarei earned her bachelor’s and grasp’s levels at Carlow College in Pittsburgh, the place she is pursing her doctorate.

Inventive escapes

Whereas she has a ardour for caring for individuals by way of nursing, she maintains a love of theater and appearing. She participated in class performs and was proficient sufficient to land components in space group theater productions. The pandemic canceled these alternatives final 12 months.

“I miss it,” Nazarei stated.

In her “spare” time and to cut back the stress of her job and the challenges of being a single mom elevating two daughters, she turned her energies to writing a fantasy novel, “Chew Shift.” The primary character — a nurse who’s a vampire — is constructed round one thing she is aware of and loves.

“I wrote the vampire story I want I had (written) in highschool,” stated Nazarei, who grew up in Manassas, Va., with a lifelong love of fiction.

Upon ending the e-book final 12 months, she confronted what many authors expertise. Getting a primary e-book printed is a frightening course of, and there have been months of rejections.

She finally began a fundraising web page on social media and obtained $5,800. She has discovered a writer, and “Chew Shift” might be in print “in time for summer season studying.”

It’s the first of what she foresees because the “Everlasting Night time Shift” collection she needs to jot down.

Her teenage daughters have been the most important motivators in getting the e-book printed, Nazarei stated.

“I wish to educate them that simply because issues don’t go the best way you deliberate or needed them to doesn’t imply you surrender,” she stated. “Typically, you want to take a step again and discover one other approach.”

Joe Napsha is a Tribune-Evaluate workers author. You possibly can contact Joe at 724-836-5252, jnapsha@triblive.com or by way of Twitter .