In April, Shereen Parsakalleh and a few of her coworkers employed at Regions Hospital in St. Paul put their lives on hold to go help out in the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States.
Parsakalleh, along with two of her friends who also worked in the Trauma Surgical Intensive Care United at Regions Hospital, took on the duty of travel nursing and made the move to New York to assist in the battle of COVID-19 within the state for eight weeks.
After resigning from their positions in St. Paul, the trio of nurses lived in the Big Apple for a total of 10 weeks and worked 12-hour shifts in an ICU float pool at NYU Langone Health System. Parsakalleh, who graduated from St. Cloud State University in 2014 with a degree in nursing, returned to Minnesota on June 17.
Although there were challenges along the way during the 10-week stay in New York and it was tough to initially leave her job at Regions Hospital a few months ago, Parsakalleh was happy to help fellow nurses elsewhere during a time of need.
“I don’t have any regrets of going out there and helping and I know it was the right decision. I feel really privileged to have gone out there and helped,” Parsakalleh said. “I met so many strong and tenacious nurses that really held it together and showed grit through this whole situation.
“It was overwhelmingly humbling to walk on there and to offer my services and skills when I was sitting at home before that looking to find ways I could help. I was so happy that I could have that opportunity to put my life on pause in Minnesota for two and a half months to go out there.”
Hitting the ground running
When Parsakalleh first arrived in New York, she felt a bit overwhelmed to be thrown into the mix of a new hospital in a new site with an entirely new staff surrounding her. Even more so during a pandemic, she had to hit the ground running and learn things quickly at NYU Langone Health System.
“It was overwhelming to be there and try to get my bearings in a new location with very sick patients. Because of how tight staffing was and how sick people were, it was really challenging the first month I was there to get into a flow,” she said. “I felt like I was thrown into craziness. I did feel some pressure to start at sprinting speed, but as an ICU nurse you have to be able to function under pressure. I came ready to do that. It was an adjustment, but I feel like I adjusted OK under the circumstances.”
During her first day on the job and walking into her new ICU unit for the first time, Parsakalleh and other travel nurses were welcomed with open arms by the staff in New York. Something that immediately reminded Parsakalleh why she made this decision.
“It was such an overwhelming and humbling feeling to walk on the unit on my first day. Despite all the alarms going off and everyone running around, all the staff nurses did a cheer for all of us traveling nurses that came,” she said. “It brings you to tears because here are people who this has been their every day for the last month.”
After getting through the initial pressures of assisting during a trying time, the last month or so slowed down for Parsakalleh and she was even able to train some new nurses into the ICU unit.
“The last month I was there things definitely plateaued and calmed down, so we were able to catch our breath. A lot of the New York nurses who that was their home unit, they started taking some breaks and holidays or get a day off, which was satisfying,” Parsakalleh said. “I then trained in about four or five brand new nurses to be ICU, which was also challenging to try and teach important lessons and tips during a pandemic. There were some challenges that I didn’t expect, but I met a whole bunch of great people and made lifelong friends out there.”
Continuing the journey of travel nursing
Initially, Parsakalleh had planned to go out to New York for the 10-week span and return to Minnesota while possibly even returning to her job at Regions Hospital in St. Paul.
But after helping out in an area of need in New York, Parsakalleh wanted to continue travel nursing and plans on embarking on another journey to the east coast in July.
This time making the trip by herself, Parsakalleh will leave for Baltimore, Maryland on July 24 for three months to help in the ICU at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Although there will be COVID-related patients present at that hospital, Parsakalleh will primarily be working with trauma and surgical ICU patients, which is her specialty.
“It was a hard thing to say goodbye to Regions in St. Paul, because I have been there for almost five years. I’m a huge people person and I had such a great team that I loved working with and I didn’t want to leave,” she said. “Going to New York was the right decision and I knew that I needed to do that no matter what the cost was. With this assignment in Baltimore, I’m going because they just don’t have the ICU manpower. I’ll probably be doing some more orientation and training as well.”
Following her time in Baltimore, Parsakalleh doesn’t plan on stopping there, as she has plans to try and return to New York later in the year to assist with flu season.
“When we were leaving New York, all the nurses were asking ‘you’re going to come back for flu season, right?’ My rough plan is to go back in October and help there until that’s done,” she said. “It wasn’t an easy decision, but I knew it was the right one. I feel like now is my chance to keep going since I took that first step.”