While Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations are beginning to tick up, both remain low versus prior years. Still, officials are taking precautions as school returns and colder weather nears.
Saluting our nurses: Jamestown s UPMC Chautauqua
In our continuing celebration of National Nurses Week, we intriduce you to 3 nurses who learned about their community and themselves through COVID Author: Peter Gallivan Updated: 7:51 AM EDT May 11, 2021
JAMESTOWN, N.Y. You might say for Carlie Bernhardt, it was baptism by fire. I graduated in May with a children s hospital in Pittsburgh. I worked there for a few months and then came back home. That s right, she entered the nursing profession right in the middle of a pandemic. For Carlie, UPMC in Jamestown is home. It was kind of crazy because we graduated, we didn t do any clinicals towards the end it was all online. So going from your computer to right in the middle of everything it was kind of crazy
The Post-Journal
FREDONIA – The COVID-19 pandemic will go down in history for a number of reasons, including how many people it affected, from health to home life and everything in between.
Many industries in the area have changed and adapted to the situation thrust upon them in 2020, none more-so than the health care industry.
“2020 was like riding a tilt-a-whirl that was spinning really fast with no real guidance,” said Emelia Harley, vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer at UPMC Chautauqua. “For health care in general, this has been a really, really tough year. There has been an incredible amount of illness and death that people have experienced … and I don’t necessarily mean local, but throughout the nation. It’s been tough and it’s been stressful for all.”
etichy@post-journal.com
Emelia Harley, UPMC Chautauqua vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer, is pictured this week inside the hospital’s emergency department. Harley has been a nurse for nearly 40 years.
P-J photo by Eric Tichy
In her nearly 40-year career working inside hospitals, Emelia Harley has seen just about everything.
COVID-19, however, proved to be a once-in-a-lifetime battle for first responders, especially at the onset of the pandemic when it appeared local hospitals may be inundated with patients and supplies becoming scarce. Those days have since passed as hospitalization rates in Chautauqua County have remained low and personal protection equipment plentiful.