Local nurse reflects on ongoing pandemic

August 20, 2020 · 0 Comments

Written By PAULA BROWN

Shelburne resident Christine Kreuzhofen has been a nurse for a long time.

In the late 1980s, as a nursing student in Germany, she can recall being scared with the rise of the HIV/AIDs epidemic in Europe. She can remember a feeling of fear while practicing in a hospital during the outbreak of SARS, and the reactions to the Ebola crisis of 2014.

They’re moments in Ms. Kreuzhofen’s career that she says she thinks back on a lot of the time.

Now, with almost 30 years’ experience as a registered nurse, Ms. Kreuzhofen, who is also the Hospital Coordinator at Collingwood General and Marine Hospital, has worked through the COVID-19 global pandemic.

“Each one has its own little dangers that you’re thinking about, but for me personally, I’ve been more unsettled by COVID-19 because of the risk to my family,” Ms. Krezhofen said. “I don’t remember having those thoughts in the last few times, I’ve been through it.”

Back in the early months of COVID-19, while the numbers still remained low in Canada but the daily cases in places such as China and Italy had begun to increase rapidly into the thousands, Ms. Kreuzhofen says that the experience in the hospitals were surreal.

“It was something that happened at the other end of the world and nobody… We were thinking about it, but nobody at that time was too concerned,” said Ms. Kreuzhofen.

When the virus was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, there was a realization of the magnitude of the novel coronavirus.

“That’s when we all realized that this is happening and it’s bad,” she said.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) from masks, face guards, gowns and hazmat suits have all become common practice within hospitals for months now. Dealing directly with patients, Ms. Kreuzhofen has been entirely geared in PPE at points, but can’t remember the feeling from the first time she put it on, saying now it’s a blur.

“It’s a very weird experience as a nurse because in that moment, it’s usually during an emergency situation, and our first instinct is to run in and help the patient,” she said. “We had to override that instinct and take the minute and put on the PPE and make sure that we’re safe before we could attend to the patient.”

Ms. Kreuzhofen added, “I’ve been doing this for a long time so it’s for me not the first time that I’ve done that, but it’s scary. You put on that PPE and you’re thinking is it enough, am I protected?”

Collingwood has had 16 positive cases of COVID-19 and hasn’t seen a positive case since July 20. With less and less numbers Ms. Kreuzhofen says the public is settling into an “uncomfortable routine.”

“It’s testament to human resilience, it’s almost normalizing the abnormal, and it’s weird.”

Kreuzhofen also spoke of the camaraderie that has come from the pandemic between health care workers. A group of nurses and personal support workers recently took part in a Nurses are Heroes virtual 5km run through Towne Fitness.

“We decided to have the virtual run to support the many nurses and PSWs that are part of the Towne Fitness Runners,” said owner Hannah Sine.

“I love the support that the public has given nurses worldwide, everybody was just trying to make our lives a little bit easier and show support and it was an incredible feeling of community,” said Ms. Kreuzhofen.