Shakeya Bean, right, with some of her co-workers at VUMC’s Glenrose COVID testing site.
Having to move her family out of their tornado-ravaged house in early March wasn’t easy for Shakeya Bean, LPN, a nurse in Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s urology practice.
But she didn’t let the added stress to her home life stop her from volunteering to work with patients being tested for COVID-19 at various VUMC testing sites during March and April.
Bean and other staff, who normally work with patients having outpatient procedures and surgery in urology at The Vanderbilt Clinic, were offered the chance to switch to COVID-testing facilities when nonessential visits to the urology clinic were halted by VUMC in March.
First she worked at the Vanderbilt Health Walk-In Clinic Belle Meade, and then switched to the VUMC Glenrose testing site and finally ended up at the COVID-19 assessment site at Nissan Stadium, where she finished working last week.
It’s been a busy several weeks for Bean, who lives in North Nashville with her 7-year-old daughter, parents and brother. Shortly after midnight on March 3, Bean and her family were expecting bad weather around their home, but not a tornado.
“We were expecting some severe wind and a lot of rain, but a little after midnight, a tornado came through and we heard a lot of commotion outside. We went outside and there were power lines down, our neighbor’s roof got ripped off their house, trees everywhere, broken windows, cars damaged, complete mayhem.
“We were fortunate enough to not have a complete leveling of our house, but we had roof damage to our home and our garage, the fence got torn up and we were without power for about two weeks and had to move into a hotel.”
“I reassured a lot of people – telling them ‘you have to remember it’s allergy season. It could be allergies. It could be strep. There are so many other things it could be. As long as you’re staying away from people and washing your hands and doing what you’re supposed to be doing, that’s what’s important right now.’”
As it would be with anyone, it’s been an adjustment for Bean to be temporarily living somewhere other than her home.
“I live near the main campus and I’m used to popping up out of bed, coming in the clinic, doing my job, and going home. It’s been a little hard getting up earlier, dropping my daughter off [at her before and after-care program] before it closed due to COVID, and getting to work on time.
“But I’ve had to remind myself that I still have a job. I’m thankful to have a paycheck. There are plenty of people out of work, wondering where their next meal will come from.”
Bean said that she’s grateful for the opportunity to work in another area while the urology and other specialty clinics have had to drastically cut back on patient appointments due to COVID.
Offering testing and reassurance
At the COVID-19 testing sites, Bean said she was able to help reassure some nervous patients waiting to be tested, and she noticed a spike in patients’ concerns as more information about the severity of the outbreak began to circulate.
“At first, at the Belle Meade clinic, they hadn’t been feeling well for a while and just wanted to get tested to see if they had it. But at the Glenrose tent and Nissan Stadium, they were beginning to wonder ‘is this going to kill me? Am I going to be one of those patients who ends up on a ventilator?’ They’d tell us ‘I have kids. Are they going to be OK?’ or ‘I have an immunocompromised relative who lives with me.’”
She even heard that increasingly, some people were scared to come for testing, for fear that if they didn’t have the virus, they might catch it at the testing site.
“I reassured a lot of people – telling them ‘you have to remember it’s allergy season. It could be allergies. It could be strep. There are so many other things it could be. As long as you’re staying away from people and washing your hands and doing what you’re supposed to be doing, that’s what’s important right now.’”
Bean, who has worked at VUMC for 16 months, said she’s ready to bet back to the urology clinic and her co-workers. “I miss all of them. I was fortunate enough to work with some of them at the Glenrose tent, but I’m ready to get back in there with all of them. I love it there.”
Things are looking up at home too.
She and her family moved back into their home in mid-April. The power is back on, and the repairs are underway.
