Jordan Kaaze (left), Cara Favorite (center) and Shereen Parsakalleh (right) pictured together. The three nurses worked in the ICU at Regions Hospital in St. Paul beforing leaving to New York to help with COVID-19 efforts on April 11. (Courtesy of Cara Favorite)
While working in the Trauma Surgical Intensive Care Unit at Regions Hospital, Shereen Parsakalleh ’14 recently found her workload at the hospital decreasing amid the current coronavirus pandemic.
With a lower amount of people coming into the hospital due to surgeries being canceled and some specialty clinics shutting down or limiting their schedules, Parsakalleh and others at Regions Hospital in St. Paul were getting asked to take days off while the medical facility was getting over-staffed.
During this critical time in the United States and around the globe, Parsakalleh wanted to help in any way she could. So, she decided to make the move with a few coworkers to New York and the epicenter of the country’s battle against COVID-19.
“We have done such a great job in Minnesota of sheltering in place and really taking precautions with COVID-19 before it got out of control. We just didn’t have the influx or the patients that we are used to having,” said Parsakalleh, who graduated from St. Cloud State University in 2014 with a degree in nursing. “Essentially, I was sitting at home twiddling my thumbs.”
Shereen Parsakalleh 14 pictured in New York City, where she is currently a traveling nurse assisting with COVID-19 efforts. (Courtesy of Shereen Parsakalleh)
In her down time, Parsakalleh started reading stories and seeing social media posts of nurses in New York asking for help in caring for patients fighting the virus. She, along with her friends and coworkers Jordan Kaaze and Cara Favorite, ultimately made a decision to put their lives in Minnesota on hold to lend a hand in New York as travel nurses.
“The nurses in New York were saying they are literally overwhelmed and were begging for help,” Parsakalleh said. “I finally just threw my hands up in the air and said ‘you know what? I can put my life on pause for two months. I can go help for eight weeks and come back and pick up where I left off.’ I had 100 percent piece in that decision of coming to help. This was kind of a no-brainer decision for me.”
Travel Nursing
After talking about the possibility of going to New York for a couple of days, Parsakalleh and her two coworkers applied to Aya Healthcare, a travel nursing agency, to learn more about helping out in the Big Apple.
The three quickly heard back from the agency and the need for help was evident. After a matter of days, Parsakalleh and her coworkers left Minnesota on April 11 to move to New York for eight weeks to work in New York City.
“I really do love traveling and once you start to travel with such a flexible job like I have and skillset that I can go anywhere, you kind of go after that itch,” said Parsakalleh, who has been a travel nurse in Hawaii and throughout the Midwest in the past. “Things just fell into place. It was honestly the easiest contract I have ever accepted.”
Parsakalleh ended up resigning from two different positions she held at Regions Hospital — positions she hopes to get back when she returns to Minnesota — to assist with COVID-19 efforts at a hospital in the NYU Langone Health System. There is where she will work in the Intensive Care Unit containing all COVID-positive patients until early June, working 12-hour shifts in an ICU float pool.
Cara Favorite (left), Shereen Parsakalleh (center) and Jordan Kaaze (right) pictured together in New York City. (Courtesy of Shereen Parsakalleh)
“I couldn’t sit by watching knowing that my skills could be used somewhere else and they are desperately needed. I came out here to provide a little bit of relief and lend my skills as an ICU nurse. My biggest hope is that’s what I can do,” she said. “It’s been so moving to have staff welcome me (in New York). Some of them have had tears in their eyes, thanking me for coming to help and the distance that I’ve traveled. I feel so honored to have the skills that I could come.
“My goal is to provide a little relief for a few months while they catch their breath and get back on their feet to be able to do the job they do best here locally. It’s a great experience to kind of be thrown into a time in history and to be a part of something that is so much bigger than myself. I take a lot of pride in my profession. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
COVID-19 response in Minnesota
Like others throughout the country, Parsakalleh has seen the impact COVID-19 has had on many while working on the front lines.
For the next eight weeks, she’s beginning a journey of experiencing a state like New York where the virus has spread more quickly.
“I’m finding that everyone is effected by this differently, just like with any other disease or virus,” she said. “The people that catch this and end up in the hospital, they are very sick patients. They require a lot of support, a lot of resources, a lot of critical thinking and acting fast, because they are very fragile.
“As a nurse, it’s a very difficult and emotionally exhausting position to be in because you try to do so much to keep them comfortable and provide them reassurance when we have every tube and machine hooked up to them and they are scared.”
Shereen Parsakalleh 14 pictured in New York City, where she is currently a traveling nurse assisting with COVID-19 efforts. (Courtesy of Shereen Parsakalleh)
“It is a little scary to be in rooms where you are obviously very exposed and there is no such thing as social distancing in nursing. I think sometimes I’m just as scared as the patients, but I’m there for them and this is my calling in life,” Parsakalleh continued. “At the same time, I’m 100 percent at peace that this is where I’m supposed to be right now.”
Although she stressed COVID-19 should be taken seriously, Parsakalleh has been pleased with the response from Minnesotans in trying to flatten the curve of the virus.
“I think Minnesotans have done a really great job of just sheltering in place and being careful of distancing while hand-washing. That’s why we’re not seeing the influx that some of these other states like New York,” she said. “We’re still not in the clear, but in my personal opinion, I don’t anticipate we will get as bad as predicted. I think we have done a really great job.
“As long as people keep observing the recommendations that are in place, we will be able to get back to semi-normal summers here soon.”
