For This COVID-19 Patient, Home Care Made Coming Home Possible

As a caring daughter, Judith Harrison knew she wanted to bring her mother, who had recently tested positive for COVID-19, home from the nursing home where she was staying. Her mother clearly wanted that too. Beyond physically moving her mother, though, Judith didn’t know what should happen next.

Fortunately, VNSNY Home Care nurse Nina Miro did. “Judith told me, ‘I’m going to pick up my mom with all her belongings, and after that, I don’t know what to do.’ I said, ‘We’ll help you get doctor’s orders to take care of your mother at home,’” says Nina, a member of Queens Branch 2 who has been with VNSNY for 20 years. Nina’s husband, an NYPD sergeant, works with Judith, who is also employed by the NYPD as a Deputy Chief. “Like so many people, she was unclear about what steps to take next and exactly how home care could help.”

Nina emailed Roger Herr, Vice President of Acute Care for Queens and Long Island, who got the ball rolling. Thanks to Jody Johnson and Marianne Kennedy in Business Development, Parbattie Ramnarain, Central Intake Coordinator, and Queens Team Manager Shatisha Nembhard, Clinical Field Manager for Queens Team 3, referrals for Judith’s mother were made and a nurse was assigned to her case. The next day, nurse Juanita Doyle-Howard, wearing full personal protective equipment (PPE) and carrying a VNSNY COVID Care kit, visited the patient.

Juanita examined the mother, who has underlying conditions and is on hemodialysis, reviewed her medications, reinforced best practices including hand-washing and use of PPE, and went over elements of her daily care with Judith and her brother, such as using the spirometer to improve her breathing and eating small, frequent meals to gain strength while minimizing GI discomfort.

“We went over the information together, and the family felt much better and more secure about what they were doing,” Juanita says, adding that the family was “very receptive to instruction. I was so proud of them, and happy for their mother to have that level of assistance.”

It didn’t take long for Judith to express her gratitude to Nina. “After the visit she texted me, and she was just ecstatic and thankful,” Nina says. “She was so comforted and at ease knowing that her mom was at home and safe.”

During the COVID-19 crisis, home care is the bridge that makes it possible for patients who have been seriously ill in the ICU to transition back home, where they continue to steadily recover their health and return to their lives. For Nina, who has heard friends suggest that she back off the front lines of care right now for her own safety, this global pandemic only reinforces the singular power of home care.

“There’s no quitting—this is my job,” she says in no uncertain terms. “As community health nurses, we run towards the fire, we don’t run away. I’m so proud to be a part of VNSNY.”

To read more VNSNY Heroes of 2020 stories, click here.