International Nurse's Day in NYC
3 Min. Read | Interview | A.M.
View of Manhattan at sunset during Operation Gotham 2020. Image courtesy Megan Warth.
NYC, New York | 5.12.2020
Megan Warth is a nurse from Everett, Washington specializing in labor and delivery. In her twenty-year career, she has encountered many difficult situations and volunteered for international relief efforts. As a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy Reserve, Megan received orders last month to leave her family and home as part of Operation Gotham.
"I am an LCDR in the Navy Reserve Nurse Corps and deployed as part of the Navy Medicine Response Team for Operation Gotham. There are about 200 in my unit and we were sent out into all of the local hospitals that the Mayor indicated were in the most need of additional staff."
"My team went to Bellevue Hospital. We will most likely be here for about two-to-four more weeks, depending on the need. And then we will quarantine for fourteen days before we can return home."
In 2017, Megan went to Haiti with Among The Reeds—an Everett-based non-profit providing medical and practical support for people in remote areas. Upon reflection, she notes the great impact that experience had on her both personally and professionally.
Megan in Léogâne, Haiti, 2017.
No matter one's previous experience, nor level of expertise, there is no salve for the emotional and mental fatigue in times of crisis. And regardless of our compassion and best intentions, death takes its toll on the living. It requires a different outlook and a strong sense of purpose to provide care for others without depleting oneself.
"I wanted so badly to be out there helping, to be serving people, serving my country. But what can a labor and delivery nurse do? I thought. Yes, I've been a nurse for 20 years, so I have learned a thing or two along the way. But being dropped in NYC on a COVID-19 Med./Surg. floor—which is more like an ICU step down—is a bit like a fish out of water."
"I have learned that nursing is nursing, no matter if you normally spend your 12 hours coaching a soon-to-be-mom how to push, or running around on a busy Med./Surg. unit. Many skills are the same, and the things that aren't can be learned with great teamwork."
"The one core thing that doesn't change—that should never change—is compassion. I have given bed baths, changed linens, rubbed lotion on feet, washed a homeless man's jeans in the sink. And today, shaved two men who haven't been shaved for well over a month."
Lieutenant Commander Megan Warth on duty in NYC. Image cropped for patient confidentiality, courtesy Megan Warth.
Mural at 34th & 7th, courtesy Megan Warth.
"We do not do anything we do for the Thank You's. But I'll tell you, I will never forget the words these patients have said to me, or simply the looks of those who can't speak, for simply providing human kindness. Because let's be real. That's all it is. This kind of care does not require a Bachelors degree, or 20 years of nursing experience."
"But just like helping a woman bring her baby into this world brings so much joy to me, so does caring for these people. I am providing them all their necessary medications, doing wound care, continuously monitoring vital signs including telemetry (its almost like fetal monitoring right?), doing trach care including suctioning (brand new skill for me), tube feedings, assisting in rapid responses, codes, and even post mortem care."
"But my favorite times are those moments that I get to spend extra time holding a phone to FaceTime with their family. Providing those little extra touches to make someone feel half-human again. And sitting and praying with my patient because she said "please don't leave me, I'm so scared to be alone."
"That is nursing to me. That is why I am here. That is why this labor and delivery nurse was called to NYC to work with COVID-19 patients. It's just all for compassion, and if that's all I have to bring, I'm ok with that."
Megan and her husband have three children. And as Mother's Day came and went, she shared how she spent her time nearly 3,000 miles away.
"I spent my Mother's Day going for a few walks in the city while enjoying some coffee. I walked down the Hudson River and took some pictures of the Intrepid. In the evening, I walked through Times Square down to St. Patrick's cathedral. It is beautiful as well as eerie how empty New York City streets are. I have found some of God's goodness here in NYC, even when sometimes it is hard to find."
A card with words of encouragement from fellow military nurse. Image courtesy Megan Warth.
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