COVID-19 unit nurse sheds light on mental health resources for healthcare workers
Reach for Resilience is a statewide mental health resource for all North Dakota healthcare workers
March 10, 2021
Mental health, that is.
A year ago, Allen cared for the first COVID-19 patient at Sanford Health.
She has been a nurse for nearly 15 years, but part of what prepared her for working inside the COVID-19 unit wasn’t her medical experience.
“I’m shaking thinking about it now,” she said with trembling hands, remembering her time as a volunteer firefighter.
“That first time I walked into a live house burn and I felt the flames tickle my turnout gear. That fear I felt that day was probably the most real, right then and there experience of my life,” she recalled.