Some nurses could easily be Nurse of the Week 52 weeks a year, and Lauren Underwood is one of them.
In 2018, Lauren Underwood, BSN, MSN, MPH inspired nurses and women of color everywhere when she became the youngest Black woman to be elected to Congress. Illinois’ 14th District Congressperson had accomplished a great deal prior to her election and has been busy blazing new trails since her swearing-in. Underwood is still a nurse as well, so it was clear from the start that she was not going to be the kind of representative who spends their time vying for social media “Likes.”
Underwood first was drawn to public policy as a teen, and in 2009 earned both her MPH and MSN at Johns Hopkins. Already a vocal advocate of the ACA, in 2014 the Obama administration tapped her to join their team as a policy advisor, and she quickly became an MVP in the push to obtain passage of the ACA. After Obama left office, she found a position as Senior Director of Strategy and Regulatory Affairs at Next Level Health and served as an adjunct instructor at the Georgetown University School of Nursing & Health Studies.
But what prompted her to take on the enormous challenge of running for office? As a promising candidate back in 2018, she told Janice Phillips at Minority Nurse that she had been bitterly disappointed by her predecessor during the ACA repeal frenzy after the end of Obama’s term. At a local League of Women Voters meeting, her own representative “said that he was only going to support a version of Obamacare repeal that allowed people with preexisting conditions to keep their coverage.” As Underwood herself has a heart condition – AND had worked hard to get the ACA passed – she felt invested both professionally and personally in the rep’s promise.
“When I walked into a room, even with people who didn’t share my political point of view, they knew that I was very clear on what was going on in our health care system.”
However, “A week to ten days later he went and voted for the American Health Care Act, which is a version of repeal that did the opposite. It made it cost-prohibitive for people like me to get coverage. But, she stressed, “I was upset not at the vote itself, but because he did not have the integrity to be honest the one time he stood before our community…. A representative is supposed to be transparent, accessible, and honest. And we deserve better. I said, ‘you know what, it’s on! I’m running.’”
Early this summer, Sullivan-Marx asked Underwood, “What was one of the drivers as to why you kept leaping forward beyond the usual kind of candidate?”
“Two things,” Underwood responded: “The number one issue in the election was health care and I brought expertise as a nurse. Someone who worked on the ACA. I was working for a provider—a private company. I’ve been a patient and I understood the law as it was, and I had a greater understanding of the ACA than my opponent, the Congressman, and then all my primary opponents— these six guys –they’re great guys—they just did not have the expertise.
When I walked into a room, even with people who didn’t share my political point of view, they knew that I was very clear on what was going on in our health care system. I had many solutions. They knew that I understood the problem and I understood what was going on with their families and that I had been fighting for years to try to solve it… That enabled us to walk into every room and be taken seriously, even if we didn’t agree on anything. People knew that on this issue, which was important to them, that I had credibility. The second thing is that we were willing to show up everywhere in person to engage people and build connections.
The Most Trusted Profession Meets the Most Mistrusted Profession
Sullivan-Marx also asked Underwood to describe her typical day on Capitol Hill:
Underwood: “In this Congress, I am assigned to two committees—the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs (VA). I’m on the Health Subcommittee. The VA is an incredible health care system that has its challenges. I focus pretty exclusively on suicide prevention, mental health, and women’s health care. The VA has this unbelievable responsibility for caring for women veterans across the lifespan. I think folks forget that there are still cadet nurse corps members from World War II that are alive and they’re active and they’re getting care in the VA that has been inconsistent at best.
“I think that nurses take for granted that every elected official knows a nurse or has interacted with nurses. We assume that they know about the work that we do.
In my experience that is completely false. They have no clue what happens at schools of nursing. They have no idea the level of expertise that a BSN graduate brings.”
I also serve on a House Committee on Appropriations. The Congress has three core functions: we create programs and we call that authorizing to solve problems. We fund the federal government appropriations, including funding those programs, and then we do Congressional oversight over the executive branch. Within the appropriations committee, I am assigned to the Agriculture Subcommittee, which also has jurisdiction over the Food and Drug Administration. That’s how we fund COVID and tobacco. Trying to make sure that we are curbing the tobacco usage epidemic. And then I serve on the Homeland Security Subcommittee. There we have ICE [U.S. Custom and Immigration Enforcement], immigration, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), cyber security, and the US–Mexico border and the Canadian border. It’s fascinating and then obviously I still do health care work, too.”
Calling all Nurses…
Toward the end of the interview, Sullivan-Marx asked, “What kind of assistance would be great for nursing to give you? How can we be helpful to you?”
The Congresswoman said, “Nurses have been so helpful for us in terms of gathering and presenting evidence. Many of these problems have a local focus and for us in Congress it is very difficult to get that kind of local data. Evaluation type data demonstrating that an intervention is effective. We can build relationships with nurses, either in our communities or folks who’ve been impacted by these problems. Site visits and testimonial stories are very powerful.
“We [nurses] have got to do better about inviting them [members of Congress] in.”
I think that nurses take for granted that every elected official knows a nurse or has interacted with nurses. We assume that they know about the work that we do. In my experience that is completely false. They have no clue what happens at schools of nursing. They have no idea the level of expertise that a BSN graduate brings. They have no idea what APRNs do. They have no idea what practicing to the full extent of our education and training means. We [nurses] have got to do better about inviting them [members of Congress] in. My colleagues are very familiar with physician education. Their whole advocacy strategy is completely different than how nursing engages members of Congress and we’ve got to step it up.”
Yes, let’s step it up! The full interview with Underwood is a great read. If you have an opportunity, check out Policy, Politics, and Nursing Practice, “Eileen Sullivan-Marx Interview of Representative Lauren Underwood (Democrat-Illinois 14th District)” here.
Thanks to Eileen Sullivan-Marx for graciously sharing her interview with DailyNurse.
Normally, Beaumont, Texas RN Vaughn Mugol sings to his bedside patients on the Christus St. Elizabeth’s oncology unit. On Monday, though, our Nurse of the Week wowed the likes of Ariana Grande, John Legend, and Kelly Clarkson during his audition for The Voice.
Using vocal chops that have cheered patients since 2017, Mugol performed a moving interpretation of Ed Sheeran’s “The A-Team.” All three judges turned their chairs in support of him, and Mugol chose Grande as his coach. All three judges were also surprised to hear that Mugol’s usual audience is his bedside patients. An admiring Legend remarked, “I feel that what you did required a lot of seasoning that one doesn’t expect from people who haven’t performed on big stages.”
The 27-year-old Mugol has always used his vocal talents on the oncology unit. In his Voice introductory video, he said, “At those vulnerable moments, usually I open up and sing to them when I know that they need it. To be able to help people with the healing process is very rewarding.”
However, John Legend may take some consolation in knowing that the Christus oncology unit has not been Mugol’s sole performance space. Prior to his network debut, Mugol often performed at local parties in Beaumont’s Filipino community – and previous auditors are not surprised that all three Voice judges wanted to be his selected coach. Melanie Lanuza, a family friend who has known Mugol since his childhood, says “We always sing karaoke at our Filipino parties, and I was surprised that he was so young and wanted to sing. None of the other kids were interested, but he wanted to sing. He blew me away even when he was so young.”
Paul Guidroz, chief nursing officer for Christus, proudly says that he spotted Mugol’s talent early. “In their orientation,” he remarked, “I spend time with all the new nurses as they begin their residency program. And in that session… I shared with him that, ‘Hey, I hear that you enjoy singing.’ I said, ‘Don’t lose that passion. You never know where it might take you.’”
Katy Kiser, communications director for Christus Health, cheered on their musical RN, saying of Mugol: “He’s an amazing nurse and he has full Christus support for his courage to go and sing on a national stage… We are all #VoteVaughn over here.”
Young nurses all over are battling despair as their dream careers seem to be mired in a grim, unrelenting cycle of needless mortalities. Fortunately, the caring sciences attract a lot of natural fighters (not to mention pro boxers and MMA contestants), and some are drawing on their frustration and war-weariness in the hope that their stories will make a difference. After all, people trust nurses even more than doctors; maybe these nurses will reach some of the people who refuse to heed Dr. Fauci.
Nurse of the Week Bailey Baker has been working in the University of Tennessee Medical Center Covid-19 unit for a year and a half now. Baker is doing all she can to stop the pointless deaths of this summer’s Delta surge,l whether on or off duty. A few days ago, the Tennessee ICU nurse shared her experience dealing with the consequences of the state’s abysmal Covid vaccination figures. Patients now in her care at UT Medical Center are “not only young but healthy with no underlying conditions—I’m talking 20s and 30s,” the 26-year-old stresses. “Mothers who have just had babies, mothers with 4 and 5 years olds…. This isn’t like anything I’ve ever experienced in my career.”
Baker spoke to her local news station to try to spread the message to her community and raise awareness of the gravity of the current situation. Surviving Covid, she argues, does not necessarily lead to a full return to blooming health. Even when it does not kill, this virus can bring about life-altering changes and entail a lengthy and painful recovery period. Baker told CBS 8, “You have them on their bellies, you’re encouraging them to do everything that you know of to keep them off that ventilator because you know in the back of your mind that the likelihood of their coming off [the ECMO] isn’t great… And if they do, you know their quality of life is likely to be severely compromised.”
At the outset of summer, UTMC staff were enjoying the deceptive eye of the Covid hurricane. The worst seemed to have passed, vaccines had become readily available, and during breaks, the conversation was even light-hearted at times. They were on the way back to “normal,” surely, after some 14 hellish months? “It was really nice, you know. We kind of got that glimpse of what the old reality was,” she recalls.
But now, “there are more patients—and sicker—than I’ve seen since we started this whole global pandemic.” The most painful aspect of the new surge is that so many of the new patients are Baker’s own age. Mustering her best glass-half-full tone, she says, “hopefully, if they make it, they will recuperate from this illness that is destroying their bodies and their lungs.”
What does she want to say to the people of Tennessee? Bailey Baker, BSN speaks of evidence, of course: “Politics aside, opinions aside, the statistics are that our severely critical patients on ventilators suffering from this virus—are unvaccinated.” Full stop. Back on the glass-half-full side, Tennesseans—like many others—do seem to be responding to the urgency of the Delta invasion. Somewhat, at least. The vaccination rate has nearly doubled in the state since July… after a 200% spike in Covid cases. About 48% of Tennesseeans have now received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine (which is ironic, as Tennessee’s percentage of fully vaccinated adults ranks them at #48 among US states). So, indeed, there is still a great deal of room for improvement, especially among those in Baker’s age group.
Now that Covid is again ending more than 1,000 American lives a day, all we can do is keep stating the facts, again and again, if need be. We hope that people will listen, and pray they recognize that nurses—from those sobbing with pain and frustration as they plead to the carefully composed stoics citing harsh, undeniable data—are not trying to run their lives; they are trying to save them.
Our Nurse of the Week, Felicia Croft, RN is a 34-year-old ICU nurse in Covid-beleaguered Shreveport, LA. The latest surge has hit her close to home in every sense of the phrase. She is treating neighbors and friends in the Covid-19 ICU unit at Willis-Knighton Health System, and just about every member of her immediate family has been infected at some point. Earlier this month, Croft’s husband was still very sick and she was coping with the pandemic on both home and work fronts. Feeling overwhelmed while driving home after a particularly grim shift, she pulled over to try to get her head together. She parked in a Dairy Queen parking lot, picked up her phone, and for about three minutes—blinking to hold back tears, and occasionally pausing to take a deep breath—Croft opened her heart in a video that may leave you blinking, too.
“So many of the people that we’re getting haven’t been vaccinated, and—just to know that there’s something that could help [save them], and they aren’t taking advantage of it . . . .
I can’t explain the feeling of defeat—when you do everything, you pour everything into a patient . . . and it’s not enough.”
The Delta variant is proving to be faster, stronger, and far more transmissible than its forebears. Even as earlier surges reaped over half a million American lives, fear and denial prompted many to tell themselves, “Oh, this is mainly a danger to the elderly and people in poor health.” Even some ICU nurses believed this, as they saw the old and those with comorbidities pass away, while survivors moved to other units to begin the slow, painful recovery process. Now, as most seniors have gotten both jabs, Delta is making a meal of the unvaccinated. SARS-CoV-2 is filling hospitals with younger, healthier bodies—and even pediatric wards are treating tiny Covid patients. So this time, nurses are wrestling with frustration and anger on top of the stress, grief, and fear they’ve been accumulating since last year.
Felicia Croft had to tell someone what it is like. Fighting back tears, she addressed her camera:
“I’ve worked in the Covid ICU for pretty much the whole pandemic… And today was probably one of the most emotionally hard days since the pandemic started. The Delta wave that we’re seeing now, people are younger and sicker, and we are intubating—and losing people my age and younger. People with kids that are my kids’ age that are never going to see their kids graduate. They’re never going to meet their grand-kids…”
Her 14-year-old daughter, Croft added, had come to her the day before and said,
“We need to pray for [her friend’s] parents… And her friend’s parents are both in my ICU! And one of them may not go home. And as a nurse, to know that if you can’t get these two people home, that their kids… will be orphaned… and my daughter will ask, ‘why didn’t you save them?’ So many of the people that we’re getting haven’t been vaccinated, and—just to know that there’s something that could help [save them], and they aren’t taking advantage of it…. Yes, we have seen people who were vaccinated, but they usually go home…. I can’t explain the feeling of defeat—when you do everything, you pour everything into a patient—and it’s not enough!”
Caring for a patient who is your own age—losing a patient who is your own age to Covid-19—is a bitter pill for young nurses to swallow. In a world where wearing a protective mask in the middle of a pandemic can arouse heated debate (and, if temperatures rise, fistfights or shootings—see list at end of story), the road to many a hospital bed right now is paved with false claims and rumors. You cannot blame the patient for having been lulled into a false sense of security, or for being misled, but it’s deeply traumatic to encounter so much suffering and loss of life (or quality of life, depending on the outcome) that could have easily been prevented. Croft’s confessional touched a nerve; over a million people viewed it. If you have not seen it yet, the full three-minute recording is below.
In the interests of fairness, it should be noted that in 2020, the unmasked were likelier to be plaintiffs in violent disputes, but the reported incidents were less violent. In spring 2021, though, people started responding with fists, guns, saliva, etc. when asked to don a mask.
We honored Sandra Lindsay, DHSc, MS, MBA, RN, CCRN-K, NE-BC as Nurse of the Week just last week. Did we run out of outstanding nurses? No, our in-box is still overflowing with NotW suggestions (and please keep them coming!). However, after careful consideration, we bowed in the face of overwhelming evidence indicating that Dr. Lindsay is owed a two-week reign as Nurse of the Week. The nursing student who described her as “the [American] face of the Covid-19 vaccine” was merely being accurate, and the events of this week can certainly attest to Lindsay’s iconic status. What has Dr. Sandra Lindsay been doing since last Wednesday? Well, we can only account for perhaps a few hours last Friday and today — but it is clear that she will have to add Vaccination Icon Duties to her schedule from now on.
Last Friday, US President Joe Biden brought her closer to Elvis status (Presley was a dedicated crusader for the polio vaccine in the 1950s) by presenting the Jamaican-born Lindsay with the Outstanding American by Choice Award. “She represents the very best of us all,” said Biden during a special ceremony at the White House, and “pursued her dream of becoming a nurse to allow her to do what she wanted to do most: give back to her new country.” He also shared a bit more of Lindsay’s own pandemic story. “During the height of the pandemic, she poured her heart and soul into her work… With a grandson at home — prematurely — she did what she had to do. She kept her distance and kept him safe. He is safe, but she lost an aunt and an uncle to the virus.”
Linsday responded, “I came to this country for the opportunities – not only for myself but to be able to help others. As a nurse, I do everything to care for the sickest patients and lead by example. More than 24 years after becoming a naturalized citizen, I could never have imagined where I am today, at the White House receiving high honors from the President. It’s truly a privilege to be a part of this great nation and I will continue to lead and help those in need.”
Elvis Presley received his polio vaccination in 1956 before his second appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.
After the White House ceremony, Lindsay was also asked to surrender her vaccination card, hospital badge, and a pair of scrubs into the custody of the Smithsonian Institution. The items will be on display at the Smithsonian’s Covid-19 historical exhibit (She naturally complied with the request, being as eager as all of us to see Covid-19 become History).
Lindsay had more Icon Duty on Wednesday, July 7, as she joined the ranks of Nurse Grand Marshals. For three hours, she presided over New York City’s Hometown Heroes ticker-tape parade. Lindsay was an obvious choice to lead festivities celebrating the courage and dedication of essential/healthcare workers caring for a city that is still trying to comprehend the loss of over 33,400 lives to the virus. “It is truly an honor and privilege to serve as the grand marshal in the Hometown Heroes ticker-tape parade and represent all health care and essential workers whose heroic efforts saved lives during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Lindsay said. Photos of the Grand Marshal smiling and waving from the back of a plush red convertible look suitably… iconic.
Dr. Lindsay, it is a pleasure to see a nurse knock The King back into his lane and take over as the US Vaccination Icon. Thank you!
Dr. Sandra Lindsay made headlines around the world (and in DailyNurse) for being the first person—and first nurse—in the US to hold out her arm for a vaccine that was regarded by many with uncertainty. How could they produce a vaccine at such a ferocious pace? (How? To paraphrase Samuel Johnson’s famous remark, when scientists fear that they or their loved ones will be killed by a virus, it concentrates their minds wonderfully). When people’s perspectives on the mRNA vaccines were clouded by fear and political biases coming from every angle, our Nurse of the Week stood up for non-immunocompromised nurses everywhere when she rolled up a sleeve and said, “I trust science.” The Jamaican-born nurse with many letters after her name is an important symbol and one that should be remembered. Nursing is about caring, but it is also about leadership, science, lots of hard work, and engaging in an endless war against ignorance.
Dr. Sandra Lindsay, DHSc, MS, MBA, RN, CCRN-K, NE-BC
So, what has Sandra Lindsay, DHSc, MS, MBA, RN, CCRN-K, NE-BC done in 2021? Well, she received her booster shot in January… We’re not certain about anything particular she did February through May, but she was probably preoccupied with her job as Director of Nursing at the Northwell Health Long Island Jewish Medical Center, waiting for the daily SARS-CoV-2 case rate to fall, and—because she really does trust science—preparing to add a Doctor of Health Sciences (DHSc) degree to her cv.
Then, this month, Dr. Lindsay responded to the request of a determined new grad, Tracey Smith, president of the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC-SUNY) Nursing Students’ Association. Smith, who describes Lindsay as “the face of the Covid-19 vaccine,” was bent on getting the iconic nurse to speak at the pinning ceremony at the school, which is where she had earned her own first nursing degree in 1994 (and was valedictorian of her class, of course). “She can attest to the safety of the vaccine,” said Smith, who plans to earn a Master’s Degree in Pediatric Nursing. “She can help our new graduate nurses and the BMCC community at large to understand how this vaccine is working to protect us and the importance of mass vaccinations nationwide.”
After somehow finding time for her own new pinning, Lindsay spoke to Smith and the other BMCC nursing grads. She more than fulfilled Smith’s hopes: “It should be the natural choice for us to get vaccinated because it’s how we look out for each other. It gives us a chance to protect ourselves, our healthcare workers and our family and friends. It’s an opportunity to grab onto a much brighter future after a very dark year.”
I believe in science. As a nurse, my practice is guided by science. And so I trust that. What I don’t trust is that if I contract COVID, I don’t know how it’s going to affect me or those I come in contact with. So, I encourage everyone to take the vaccine.
Dr. Sandra Lindsay, December 14, 2020
During commencement, Dr. Lindsay was also awarded the BMCC President’s Medal for 2021, “which expresses the College’s admiration and appreciation for extraordinary service and leadership.”
At the ceremony, Lindsay said of Covid-19, “It’s not gone. I was vaccinated back in December and here I am today, feeling well, doing well. All BMCC graduates are role models. Nurses going out into the field are role models for patients who will look up to you as you model the behavior you want to see in the world.”
For more details (but not about Lindsay’s actions in February-May), see the NY Carib News story here.
