“All of a sudden we’re walking into a crowd of news reporters and a huge line of people waiting to get tested. The emergency room was overflowing into other areas of the hospital. Looking back on it, it felt like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday all happened in one day,” Nicole recalls.

The height of the pandemic was incredibly difficult for Nicole and the medical teams at Elmhurst. No matter how sad, frustrated, afraid, or exhausted they were, they had to get up, work hard, and be there for their patients. And then keep going, and going, and going. Nicole remembers, “In the beginning we didn’t see a light at the end of the tunnel. I remember walking down the hallway and seeing people crouched down and actually crying.”

As one of NYC’s largest hit hospitals, the world was given a glimpse into Elmhurst.
But nothing compares to living it.

The challenges of being inundated and the constant losses were detrimental. Nicole remembers, “No matter how much of it came out on the news and no matter how much was talked about, it was so different being there. Seeing it first-hand and seeing the struggles of our colleagues, patients – seeing everyone try to come together to hold this weight that we had on our shoulders – there’s just no way to even think that we had any sort of hope.”

For those on the front lines, it felt like times of war. “None of us were doing our job descriptions but we were all there for one sole purpose - to have that driving force, to have us surviving as a staff, and to be able to survive as a staff to provide for our patients. To never stop providing for our patients,” Nicole shared. Regardless of their fear, they worked together to pick each other up.

Nicole jumped right in and took on a number of different roles. Whether she was counting ventilators, helping in the mail room, or assisting with donations for the hospital, she was there to support with whatever was needed.

She worked with other departments and colleagues in other disciplines. She learned about the needs of specific patient populations and units, and realized that techniques used in child life can be applied to adults. She also saw what gaps existed for Elmhurst’s unique and vulnerable patient population, which includes those facing economic difficulties, people of color, and people dealing with issues with immigration, domestic violence, and abuse. (Read more in Pivoting During a Pandemic).

While in-patient units were overcrowded, the atmosphere outside of the hospital was the complete opposite. Located in one of the most densely populated and diverse neighborhoods in Queens, the streets around Elmhurst are usually bustling and filled with people.

Once the pandemic hit, Nicole said, “The only thing we would hear were the sounds of sirens. The only people we would see were people like us that were also going to fight the battle.” Even her commute changed drastically. One week Nicole was on crowded subways and the next she was the only person within six subway cars.

The pandemic made everywhere outside of the hospital eerily quiet.

Life at home posed its own challenges. Both Nicole and her husband are on the front lines and are fully exposed to the virus, due to their jobs. “We would sometimes come home and we would just want to sit in silence. We didn’t want to hear the news or even talk because it was always just constant sirens and constant alarms. There was so much movement throughout the day that when we finally got home we just wanted quiet. We needed that calm to reset - to go to sleep - to wake up the next day and do the same thing all over again.”

In March of 2020, NYC H+H/Elmhurst became the epicenter of the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This posed many changes and challenges for the hospital as well as their community at large. Children still needed care, but parents were afraid to come in. Pediatric doctors, including those who hadn’t cared for adults in decades, had left the clinic and pediatric units to treat adults. Hospital staff had to limit exposure to each other and their patients to conserve PPE.

Everyone pitched in however they could. Nicole shares, “We really did have all hands on deck. And we really did make a major change. And it was everyone. From nutritionists to social workers to doctors to nurses. Everybody got to the point where they were not doing their actual job. Because we had to fight for what we had… and we had to work together to pick each other up and to take care of our patients”

Although the environment was evolving quickly, one thing did not change during the pandemic.

Mothers were still pregnant and still had to give birth.

Obstetrics patients at Elmhurst faced life-changing aftereffects that posed a critical need: new mothers in the community were unable to access basic and essential infant care items. This meant that mothers were being discharged home without enough clothing or diapers for their newborns.

The hospital itself had given out all their supplies and experienced shortages of infant care items. Many stores in the neighborhood had shut down, and nearby retailers that were open had very limited stock available due to the high demand. Many of the Elmhurst families were struggling financially, and several new mothers lost their partners due to the virus and were facing this all on their own.

“Not only are you dealing with the normal set of emotions that it is to bring a baby into this world and have all those new mom ‘scaries’ - you are also just dealing with the fact that your partner, the father of this child, has now passed away and you are also grieving that.”

As a one-person department and no one to really turn to, Nicole sought help from enCourage Kids. “I remember in that moment that the most child life thing I could think to do was seek help from enCourage Kids.”