By Terrell McAlily
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Each day that Zelbesa Mack pulls on her colorful cotton hospital scrubs that cover every inch of her body, secures her face mask and shield and snaps on protective gloves, she thinks about the risks of being a nurse on the frontlines of an intense battle to contain and squash infections from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I mean it’s scary, “ Mack told The Baltimore Watchdog. “I’d be lying if I said I’m not afraid.”
Statistics alone are frightening. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released preliminary data on infections among frontline health workers. Nearly 9,300 U.S. health care workers contracted the coronavirus, and 27 have died. About 55 percent of those who tested positive think they were exposed while at work. About 73 percent of the health workers falling ill are women and the median age is 42.
Mack is 43. She works for United Health Care Insurance Co. at two nursing homes in Maryland. Although she refuses to identify the nursing homes, she explains her job is not on a shift schedule and her hours vary by day. As a nurse practitioner, she is on call, however, for 24-hour shifts.
A nurse practitioner is an advanced practice registered nurse, whose skill level approaches that of a general physician. NPs are trained to assess patient needs, order and interpret diagnostic and laboratory tests, diagnose disease, formulate and prescribe treatment plans.
“This isn’t the first time I’ve been asked to expose myself when taking care of patients,” says Mack, who is a native of Middletown, New York. “It’s happened before just not at this large of a scale. It comes with the job. I just take care of them [the patients] the best way I know how to.”
Before the pandemic began its spread early this year, Mack says she would simply wear scrubs to work that fit her comfortably while wearing her favorite pair of New Balance sneakers. She says she would grab her work bag filled with essentials, such as her stethoscope, pen light, clipboard, and thermometer.
Since the pandemic, however, Mack has added gloves to her bag along with hand sanitizer and an N95 respirator face mask. She says she tries to cover herself as much as possible by wearing long-sleeve scrubs and keeping her nails cut low.
“I want to help my patients, but I have to stay safe for myself as well,” Mack says. “I wash my hands after everything and try to do as much as I can when in contact with my patient to eliminate making unnecessary trips to their room. I have a husband and kids still to go home to and the last thing I want to do is put them at risk.”
The risks of COVID-19 haven’t dampened Mack’s enthusiasm for medicine nor brought any regrets to being a nurse.
“I always wanted to do that,” she says about nursing. “There’s something about health and science that I just love. I couldn’t see myself doing anything else.”
While growing up in Orange County, in New York’s Hudson Valley, Mack attended Helion Hall-Gheez Academy until she moved to Baltimore to attend Morgan State University. Her dream was to pursue a career in the medical field, so she earned a bachelor’s degree in Biology at Morgan State and then earned a bachelor’s degree in Nursing at Towson University.
Mack completed her educational journey at the University of Maryland at Baltimore with a master’s degree in Nursing so she could work as a nurse practitioner. Mack now lives in Timonium with her husband and five children.
Becoming a nurse practitioner was important to Mack. She agrees that her work parallels that of a physician but stresses that there are two different philosophies of care. Nurse practitioners and physicians also have two different approaches.
“Nursing is holistic,” Mack says. “As a physician, you focus on one area of the body. Nursing is everywhere; all over the body at once.”
As a primary care provider, Mack says she is used to routine visits once a month to the nursing homes and arrives frequently for emergencies. Since the pandemic, that has changed. Emergencies are a daily occurrence, she says.
“I went from seeing patients usually once a month for fevers, urinary tract infections, etc. to now seeing double and triple patients for severe respiratory problems,” Mack says. “I drive to both nursing homes daily which are about 25 minutes from each other.”
Mack’s advice is that people try not to become bored, especially the millennials.
“Please understand this is real,” she warns, noting she has had patients test positive for the virus. “People are really dying. Follow all warnings, wear masks and so on.”
Mack doubts predictions about when COVID-19 infections will end.
“I don’t think they [government] have enough information,” she says.
1 Comment
Hats off to my daughter in law for her bravery and caring for people in need. It is so important at this time. And by the way love the picture.