Lessons Learned from a Year Like No Other

AtlantiCare CNO Kathy Birkenstock Shares Her Appreciation with Team Caring for Our Community

By Kathy Birkenstock, MSN, RN

As AtlantiCare’s vice president and chief nursing officer, I have the sincere privilege of leading our nursing community. I have always felt a profound sense of duty to guide, protect and empower all those whose passion has led them to the nursing profession.

As we approach our second National Nurses Week during COVID-19, I’d like to share a few of the lessons I’ve learned watching our amazing healthcare team during the past 14 months. Together, they offer insight into what makes AtlantiCare Strong while providing hope for a brighter tomorrow.

Lesson No. 1: Strength of Heart and Mind is Just as Important as Strength of Body

We have asked our nurses and caregivers to shoulder a heavy burden, requiring as much emotional as physical strength. As members of the healthcare profession, they are naturally inclined to feel compassion and empathy. As hospital visitation was paused for the health and well-being of our patients, their loved ones and staff, this team became caregivers and extended family members, comforting the ill and counseling their loved ones. I will forever be in awe of their capacity to care.

Lesson No. 2: When We Work As One, We Can Accomplish Anything

The pride I feel for my team comes from knowing we truly support each other in every sense. Time and again I have witnessed people coming together to offer help and encouragement to those in need. This extends beyond our nursing community to each member of AtlantiCare’s support staff, without whom patient care is not possible. The only way for us to manage this pandemic has been to do it together. It fills me with joy to see the willingness of our team to act as one, knowing that together we can face anything.

Lesson No. 3: To Heal Others, We Must First Heal Ourselves

There is a thought that when the last COVID-positive patient goes home our pandemic work will be over. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The fact is, as healthcare providers we will be coping with the fallout of this pandemic for years to come. It is imperative that we prepare now to care for our nurses and other healthcare professionals who will feel the emotional burden of this disease into the future.

At AtlantiCare, we are invested in providing the wellness resources necessary to support our team in so many ways. That is the true spirit of care, and we are committed to seeing it through.

When the pandemic began a year ago, I wrote a message to our nursing team to show my appreciation for their tireless commitment and sacrifice. Included was a quote from Florence Nightingale, the mother of modern nursing:

“How very little can be done under the spirit of fear.”

What I have learned about AtlantiCare’s nursing team in the past year is that there is no challenge too great, and having a steely attitude helps us to overcome every obstacle with grace and humility. We have nothing to fear because we walk side by side, ready to guide one another through the darkness and into the light of a new day.

Kathy Birkenstock, MSN, RN, is vice president and chief nursing officer at AtlantiCare.

-30-