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.
Melanie Allen
Photo: Courtesy of Sanford Health
FARGO, N.D. (KFGO/KVRR) â After a year of helping patients fight COVID-19, medical professionals are dealing with their own mental health concerns.
âThe first few weeks were terrifying,â recalls Sanford Health nurse Melanie Allen.
She has been a nurse for nearly 15 years, but part of what prepared her for working inside the COVID-19 unit wasnât her medical experience.
âIâm shaking thinking about it now,â she said with trembling hands, remembering her time as a volunteer firefighter.
Allen says her volunteer firefighting experience gave her the mental strength to deal with the day-to-day struggles of helping COVID patients in the Sanford ICU every day.
ENTERPRISE â Fishtrap will offer monthly writing workshops in an online format through May, featuring some of the group s favorite writers.
A weekend virtual writing workshop gets things rolling on Saturday, March 13, and Saturday, March 20, featuring Perrin Kerns. Writing For Resilience: Finding and Using Joy as a Source, will focus on writing about joy in the midst of the pandemic, protests, climate change and solitude. Cost to participate is $270, or $240 for Fishtrap members. Registration is open at www.Fishtrap.org.
April s virtual workshop features nature writer Karen Auvinen. The Land Beneath Your Feet: Writing with Nature will be held Wednesdays in April from 6-7:30 p.m. (Pacific time). Registration is $270, or $243 for Fishtrappers.