Skip to content

Home Health Workers Face Down Fear During Pandemic

As COVID-19 patients are discharged from hospitals to recover at home, nurses answer the call. Pictured, Home Health nurse Chinelo Ahamefule, right, at COVID-19 training session in Oakland.

When word came in mid-March that a nurse on his team would be the first in Northern California to visit a patient with the COVID-19 virus at home, Gio Cajanding knew there would be fear and anxiety.

The virus, which killed over 100,000 Americans in less than 6 months and has infected more than 11,000 health care workers in California, was at the time spreading unabated in the San Jose area where Cajanding serves as Kaiser Permanente director of Patient Care Services for Home Health and Hospice.

“We had 3 days to put a plan together, so the COVID-positive patients became very real for us,” said Cajanding. “At the time, everyone was afraid of being sent to a positive patient’s home and contracting the disease. But we also knew these patients are human beings who need to be taken care of.”

Cajanding and registered nurse Paivi Kinanen, who would see the first patient, put whatever fear and anxiety they may have had aside and called on their training, professionalism, and sense of purpose to get the job done.

As humans, we have our fears and our worries, but right now we have to push them aside, so we can be present for our patients.

As they developed their plan, which would now include a second person outside a patient’s home to help make sure the nurse was covered head to toe in protective gear, Cajanding and his team also reviewed their mindset.

Focus and Purpose

“We openly talked about the fear we had,” Cajanding said. “We talked about our patient, and why we were going there. We focused on our purpose and stayed with it, and that lessened the anxiety.”

Caring for a COVID-19 patient at home requires meticulous preparation to prevent transmission of the virus from the patient to the nurse or from the nurse to the patient. That means putting on and then taking off gloves, a mask, a face shield, and gown, all without touching anything exposed to the virus. The same precautions apply to physical and occupational therapists, who also see members in their homes.

Following general guidelines from infectious disease doctors, Cajanding and his team put together a COVID-19 playbook for seeing patients at home. A patient’s home is an uncontrolled and at times unpredictable environment as opposed to a hospital or doctor’s office, so the group brainstormed scenarios they might encounter that would put the patient or the nurse in danger.

Then they rehearsed.

“Knowing that we would be taking all the necessary precautions, I was very comfortable doing it,” said Kinanen, a Finland native who began her career as an emergency room nurse in 2007. “It was actually very exciting and interesting. I’m a nurse, and protecting myself from potentially harmful microbes is already built in.”

Their visit went well, and their patient recovered.

“That was our first visit, and it was successful, so it really motivated our staff,” Cajanding said.

Since March, a regional COVID-19 playbook has been shared across Kaiser Permanente Northern California. Now nurses are being trained on how to administer a COVID-19 test inside a patient’s home.

Chinelo Ahamefule, a home health nurse in Oakland who recently received training on the in-home tests, is ready to use the lessons her colleagues have prepared for her when it is her turn to see a COVID-19 patient.

“For the health care workers right now, there is this huge responsibility and expectation to be brave in the face of disaster,” she said. “As humans we have our fears and our worries, but right now we have to push them aside, so we can be present for our patients.”

 

 

 

Tags

coronavirusCOVID-19nursing

This Post Has 7 Comments

  1. THIS IS AN AMAZING ARTICLE. YOU ARE ALL VERY BRAVE, CARING, COMPASSIONATE AND ABOVE ALL WILLING TO PUT YOURSELVES IN THE FIRING LINE TO CARE FOR OTHERS.
    THANK YOU ALL FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART!!

  2. What an awesome story. Thank you, Gio, for setting an example for all of Northern California! Your team rocks!
    Sue

  3. Fantastic job with thoughtful planning and execution, Gio and Paivi! As Chinelo noted, we need to put our fears aside so we can focus on the patient. Thank you for recognizing the patient’s perspective and stepping up to serve!

  4. I like to think on the positive side of this outbreak. In Contra Costa County statistics to date, population is 1.15 million, in hospital 21, and there have been 44 deaths recorded. This is data is positive. Keep up with the hand washing (frequently), wear your masks when you are within 6 feet of others, and lets be kind to each other. Also, lend a helping hand to the elderly and ones that are at risk when you can. Thank KP.ORG for keeping us informed.

Leave a Reply

Comments Disclaimer

Many articles and features on Look insideKP Northern California offer readers the opportunity to share their opinions about a specific topic by making comments. Please do not include any confidential information in your comments, such as personal, medical, or financial information. Comments should be respectful and on-topic. We reserve the right to edit comments as necessary, will only post comments meeting our criteria, and in some instances reserve the right to not post comments. Thank you.

Back To Top

Don't miss out on stories from Look InsideKP
Northern California

Opt in to receive story headlines weekly.