Evelyn Rodriguez, Senior Medical Supplies Clerk, VNSNY Home Care

“I’m a giver, and I have a passion for caring and for advocating.”

A 28-year VNSNY veteran, Evelyn was a field interpreter for a little more than a decade, then did all-around administrative work wherever her services were needed. Among her responsibilities were taking orders for doctors and helping out in the medical supply room, so when a permanent job opened up in the latter 15 years ago, she was ready to hit the ground running.

“When the pandemic first started, I remember seeing people packing up their stuff and asking me ‘Evelyn, aren’t you going home?’, and I was like ‘no, I can’t!’” says Evelyn—an anecdote that pretty much summarizes her all-in approach to her job. “It’s not like I could do this job remotely. We were fighting an invisible war and didn’t really know what was going on, but we prevailed, trying to do the best that we could in order to keep our clinicians and ourselves safe.” Evelyn assembled the first official PPE bags and COVID kits, which was not an easy task at a time when merely obtaining equipment was a challenge—and when the equipment did arrive, it came from all different kinds of organizations. At night, she’d go home and think about ways to streamline the processes.

“The medical supply room during the pandemic was difficult to tackle, but having to focus on making sure that everything was organized and orderly, I became a lot more proactive, and it really helped me hone my leadership skills,” she says. “A lot of nurses were scared and they wanted to be heard. I took charge and created solutions to address their concerns—like implementing a system to ensure that people entered and exited the proper way to maintain social distancing—in addition to making sure that they each had the tools and equipment they needed to go out there and provide health care for our patients.”

Promoted to her senior title last year, Evelyn remains passionate about her job. “I’m a giver, and I have a passion for caring and for advocating,” she says. “The more that I educate myself, the better I can service someone, and the easier and more rewarding my work becomes!”