05/10/2021
By Shortie McKinney and Heidi Fantasia

If there ever was a year to celebrate the National Nursing Week, this is it. We encourage you to reach out to your nursing friends, family, colleagues and UMass Lowell alumni to thank them during National Nursing Week, May 6 to 12.

From the beginning of the pandemic, the stories kept coming. Nurses were overwhelmed with patients and fearful of bringing the virus home to their families. Their trials and tribulations are just now starting to recede thanks to the vaccine and public health measures.

Here’s one story about David Nguyen, who as a student worked as a nursing assistant at Boston Medical Center when COVID hit. He comforted many patients as they died, cut off from friends and family, during the first surge of COVID-19 in the spring and summer of 2020.

Our students and nursing faculty responded to the call to volunteer to administer the vaccine. From learning online to learning on the frontline -- more than 120 of our nursing students helped administer COVID-19 vaccines at a mass vaccination clinic in partnership with Lowell General Hospital.

Clinical Assistant Professor Lisa Marchand, Family Nurse Practitioner student Alexandra Chaisson and Nurse Practitioner and Adjunct Faculty member Ann Marie Foustoukos cared for COVID patients at the Pentucket Medical Respiratory Infection Clinical team in Lawrence.

These are just a few of the many contributions that our nursing community has made to care for the sickest among us and protect those from the virus.

Whether nurses have been caring for acutely ill patients in the hospital or whether they have been working in the community, the pandemic took a toll on nurses, patients and their families. We’ve heard many stories of nurses coming home after a shift of caring for COVID patients worried for the safety of their families.

Our clinical partners and alumni have given much of their lives the past year in some way to care, educate and protect the health of communities. Education and outreach are important roles for nurses at any time. During COVID, communicating the facts about the severity of the virus, the role and effectiveness of vaccines and how distancing and safety guidelines literally could save lives became imperative. These issues are critical to slow the spread of COVID and to keep people from becoming acutely ill and needing hospitalization.

Thank you to our entire community of nurses for all that you have, and continue, to do for our community.