The Morning Cast

The Morning Cast #6 | What Live's Going to Look Like When Schools Open

Stacey Grant sits down (virtually) with Director of Workforce and Professional Development at First Up, Caroline Campana. First Up is a non-profit organization that ensures all kids from birth through age 8 can receive a quality early childhood education. Stacey and Caroline discuss topics surrounding virtual learning, what parents can do to help, and what's going to change once schools open. WHAT LIFE’S GOING TO LOOK LIKE WHEN SCHOOLS OPEN Through First Up, where she has been working for nine years, Caroline provides teachers the opportunity to build career pathways to higher education. She said in the interview, “A qualified teacher can really provide a quality education to a young child.” Caroline has been a tremendous advocate for the field. Through coaching and technical assistance, she is helping create a higher standard in early childhood education. CHANGES IN THE WORK DAY Once students transitioned to at-home schooling, First Up was quick in adapting to the remote workplace in order to help both teachers and their students. An online platform was swiftly created. On their website, they provide information for parents on how to teach their children from home and how to support their teachers. As well as a 4-6 day online training in which they have trained over 18,000 teachers in Pennsylvania. WHAT FUTURE SCHOOLING MIGHT LOOK LIKE When asked about the future of education and what teaching might look like when students start returning to school, Caroline expressed concern about young learning if a teacher wears a mask. Young children might not be able to fully understand language and emotion that they learn through facial expressions. This is where First Up, the lead organization in supporting this field across the state, can play a pivotal role. In being innovative and “being two steps ahead,” Caroline and her staff can help students become successful and confident learners while adapting to a new normal in the classroom. HOW CAN PEOPLE HELP THIS INDUSTRY? Caroline asks people to give back. By advocating or sitting on the Board of Education, there are a lot of different roles you can play that can help make a difference. Caroline wants to ensure this field survives the pandemic by coaching, advocating, and providing support once teachers are back in the classroom. We hope you enjoy the full interview, which you can listen to or watch below. Or listen on Spotify or Apple Podcast.

The Morning Cast #5 | PE Teacher Gets Creative During COVID-19

Since the pandemic, everyone has had to change the way they approach their jobs. Teachers are a perfect example of pivoting - especially physical education teachers. Jared is a PE teacher at an elementary school in Maine and he walks us through his challenges, pivots and every day wins since COVID-19.

The Morning Cast #4: Nurse Appreciation Week | Deb

COVID-19 Through the Eyes of an Urgent Care Pro As a nurse who has worked for years, Deb seems undaunted to the recent world challenges with the Coronavirus. She works daily as an Urgent Care nurse and also in COVID-19 testing centers. “What are you wearing? How have things changed?” "Things have changed exponentially. In the testing centers, there is a lot of PPE except booties. Recently we have been quiet in Urgent Care. People are staying home and not coming in that often. When they do they go directly back to waiting rooms. Generally, she is seeing more at home incidents like hand lacerations from cutting or home improvement. In the testing centers, we triage patients in their cars via phone. People are scared. Part of our job is to calm them down." “I’m not a hero. This is one of those things we just do as Healthcare professionals.” "None of us think of ourselves as heroes. We are just doing our job. Everyone has their job to do. Everyone is a hero. We need to get back to normal. This is out there. It is not harming the number of people we were worried about. The healthy people need to get back to work." People have been kind. "Restaurants have been dropping off food. People have been dropping off their extra masks. Unfortunately, patients when alone in the exam rooms are stealing gloves because they are panicked and are stealing gloves so they have to be locked up. We try to reassure them and let them know that we are always there for them if they need us." What Masks and Gloves Do and DON'T DO "Just because you have gloves on doesn’t mean that your hands are invincible. When you touch things with your gloves and then another part of you with your gloves it contaminates you. The masks are good to wear because COVID is spread through droplets. Gloves are not being used correctly. I wish the government would do more education around gloves and proper usage." We are getting a lot of negative COVID Tests "And the ones that are positive are not severely symptomatic. The main symptoms to worry about are cough, fever, chills and fatigue, difficulty breathing, and shortness of breath. We are finding that people who do not have an underlying disease process are fairly asymptomatic. If you have COPD or Diabetes or underlying heart disease are in danger. Healthy people need to get out and get back to work. It’s allergy season so people have come in with those symptoms." It seems like you are not nervous. "No, I’m not. I’m sure a lot of people will disagree with me but we are just not seeing it in my Urgent Cares. People are COVID positive and survive. People are not surviving the Flu as much. And even if people have COVID they are not being taken down by COVID they are being compromised by their underlying disease process. People do not get the flu vaccine so I don’t think a COVID vaccine will be effective." Don’t panic. Get Healthy. "I know a nurse who went to the grocery store in her scrubs and got punched by another person in the store because he thought she was wearing dirty scrubs from the hospital. Most of the deaths are in our older population. This virus is not out of the ordinary. This virus is acting like a typical virus. There are a significant number of more deaths from the flu than COVID at this time. Get healthy, wash your hands, don’t touch your face, and bolster your immune system with great food and vitamins and you should be ok."

The Morning Cast #3: Nurse Appreciation Week | Paula

The Very (Very) Front Line An X-Ray technician is one of the first people to know whether or not a patient has tested positive for COVID-19. The Koi-Fly team learned about this from Paula, a veteran technician who comes face to face with the virus nearly every day in Central Jersey. Most days, her job takes her immediately to the emergency room. Ever Changing Policies Because this is a novel virus, scientists and healthcare workers are still learning how to properly treat and protect against it. Paula details the challenges they faced regarding proper PPE (personal protective equipment) when the outbreak began saying, “The CDC guidelines were different at that point [in the very beginning] as far as precautions… whether it was airborne or droplet. We started out with the surgical mask and then they realized things were becoming dire and more and more difficult, and more and more people were coming in positive.” She continued saying, “We’ve been fortunate that every week I’ve gone in, I’m given any kind of equipment I want, which is great, which not a lot of people can say.” Bedside Service The unit Paula works is usually in a separate area of the hospital. Patients would normally come to her to be x-rayed. Now, Paula goes to them. “We walk around. It’s all portable. Nobody comes to our unit anymore because you don’t want to infect rooms that are needed for healthier people,” she said. With a long list of patients, Paula spends her days x-raying chests for those suspected of COVID-19 saying, “We’ve gotten so good at these X-rays. You take a picture of the lungs, and I’m not a doctor, but I’m like, oh boy, this is definitely a positive one.” She shared with us an example of what an x-ray looks like from a positive COVID-19 patient, pointing out how their lungs look like there are “cotton balls” in them, describing how to spot the difference between a COVID-19 infected patient and pneumonia infected patient based off of that. Getting the Job Done “What makes all of us, as workers, nervous is how the rules change since this all started at the beginning of March,” she said. Paula’s main fears stem from the lack of clarity with protective equipment. The changes in which masks to wear are an example of this uncertainty as she explained, “In week one you said that surgical mask was all I needed. Something’s not right.” In addition to proper PPE, Paula is required to take her temperature every day before going to work. Anything over 98.6 degrees is a red flag. Still, Paula continues to bravely fight this disease on the very front line. She has a disinfecting routine at the end of every shift, careful not to infect her family or anyone she comes in contact with. When asked what keeps her going back to work, Paula answered, “For me, personally, it’s what I signed up for. I knew that going in. I guess it takes a certain person.” She continued by saying, “I just want to help. If I’m able and capable of helping someone, why not?” UPDATE: In the interview, Paula mentioned that the pediatric emergency room and the non-emergent section of the ER were converted to care for positive adult cases. This was because, at the time, the hospital had too many cases and ran out of room. As of today, the pediatric ER is back to only caring for children and the non-emergent ER is back to just that, assisting non-emergent patients. Great news! Unfortunately, though, her hospital has seen a slight spike in children benign infected with COVID. Those cases go directly to PICU (pediatric intensive care unit). Overall, Paula feels like we’re heading in the right direction wich is down the curve.

The Morning Cast #2: Nurse Appreciation Week | Nicole

Veteran Nurse Shows Compassion During COVID-19 Nicole has been a nurse for seventeen years. She’s spent almost all of those years in the Emergency Department of an inner-city hospital. She’s also currently on the Decontamination Team, that assisted in the Ebola outbreak, and recognized the importance of preparing for the upcoming Covid-19 pandemic early on. “There’s this oncoming storm you see, and you don’t know when it’s going to hit,” she says, “It might hit our shores or it might never hit our shores, it was the need to prepare just in case.” Informing the Public Nicole has a way of putting things into perspective. She’s a clear-minded thinker with a level head, which made this interview both educational and intriguing. From detailing the intricacies of N-95 masks to explaining how to properly wear gloves, Nicole highlighted the importance of informing the public. “I think people are really scared. And I feel bad,” she said, “I think people need to know that to correctly wear gloves in the store, you’d have to wear 3 pairs.” When discussing the N-95 masks, she revealed the universal fear from doctors and nurses saying, “I’ve used those masks throughout my entire career. But… the second you go in that patient’s room, you’re wondering, ‘Did I seal it right?’” Still, Nicole continues to walk into those rooms every day. Necessary Precautions Like every other hospital in the world, special precautions have been put in place that has altered the typical shift for healthcare workers. Nicole has to take her temperature and send it with a list of answered questions via an app before entering the hospital. Rooms that normally have curtains have been replaced with doors to keep contamination limited. What was usually a five-minute huddle between the shift changes has turned into a twenty-minute huddle every day. A Message to Others “I would tell them not to lose faith,” she began before the conversation turned towards mental health. “Being home, trying to maintain your own anxiety. Think about your health. Get out there and walk in the sunshine. Get out there and take care of yourself. Don’t just sit home watching the news all day long. You’ve got to take care of your mental health and physical health now more than ever.” From Fear to Action Nicole spoke about her fears, “I fear what I might see in the next coming weeks. I fear the emotional toll it might take. And I fear bringing it home. That might be one of my biggest fears because I would never want to make my family sick.” But, like so many other brave nurses, she fears more for others than she does for herself. Her compassion was tangible as she spoke about children not having food due to schools closing, and those who are out of work with a family to care for. “I think we have to be a little more vigilant to worry about our neighbor next door. We all have a little bit to give.”