Faces of the Fight: Rosanne Gill, Licensed Practical Nurse
My name is Rosie Gill and I am a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN). Usually, I work in the Acute Care/Emergency Department in the small town of Turtleford, a rural integrated facility in Saskatchewan’s northwest.
Last year, I dared to do something new, taking on a new position as COVID-19 tester and educator. We started up our COVID-19 testing center in the ambulance bay of Turtleford’s facility in early fall of 2020 as a way to make testing more available and easier to access for our rural populations.
What I have enjoyed most about this job is educating people, filtering through the inconsistent information and battling social media propaganda to give people factual, up-to-date information in relation to their COVID-19 test results, quarantine, dealing with or monitoring for symptoms and offering mental health resources. And now, I get to offer vaccine information as well!
We are almost a year into the COVID-19 pandemic. This has been a year none of us saw coming.
What has been one year has felt more like 10.
What we had hoped would only last a few months is now nearly in its second year.
Being a full time frontline health care worker from the beginning of the pandemic, I’ve felt tired and burned out many times. Like many others out there, I find myself flipping back and forth through the steps of grieving as I mourn our life prior to COVID-19.
As a rural nurse I field a lot of questions on and off the job. I hear the naysayers, I feel the anger, I filter through the negative. I try hard to stay patient as our health care system tries its best to swim through murky, unprecedented waters, and try to see the rainbow, even though some days bring many clouds.
I have recently been privileged enough to be part of a team administering the first doses of COVID-19 vaccine in our rural area. This has been a very exciting and hopeful time for me; I am seeing clearer than ever that big beautiful rainbow at the end of the rain.
I see hope, and I feel hope while I’m administering vaccines.
This is an exciting time in our battle against COVID-19.
Our vulnerable populations have been so elated and thankful to be able to receive this vaccination. This brings the battle into perspective for me; these vulnerable people are why we have been fighting so hard. They are the ones that have been living in fear and truly in isolation since the pandemic started.
I am truly grateful to be able to administer this vaccine to them, and feel honored to be making my mark in history alongside my nursing colleagues.
My mantra to the controversial frenzy surrounding the vaccine has been “let’s trust science.” I hope to see this next year bring us back to a life similar to the time before we got to know COVID-19.
Stay safe, and stay kind.