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Voces Oral History Center Interview with Sandra Gonzalez

VOCES
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0:10 - Preamble -- Introductions 6:08 - Work Duties & Changes: Nursing Vulnerable Populations

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Segment Synopsis: Sandra is a registered nurse at Methodist Hospital, located in San Antonio, Texas. Her primary caregiving is done both in the NICU and Women’s Services Unit (WSU). However, her main duties are to tend to pregnant women and their newborn after labor. She describes Methodist Hospital as a large facility specializing in women’s and children’s care with a hospital wing designated for adults.

However, before the city of San Antonio experienced an abundant amount of COVID-19 cases Sandra recounts how the hospital was very proactive in adopting changes that would minimize the amount of interaction employees and individuals would have with COVID positive patients – this would also ensure protection of their patients. She as well describes her shift where she learned she had to let patients know they weren’t allowed any visitors. There were as well general changes that were instated for how the hospital performed healthcare: minimizing the number of nurses per patient, ceasing elective surgeries, and only admitting people in who were sick and needed treatment.

Further changes that were carried throughout the hospital affected areas in the facility such as the NICU and Women’s Services Unit that would in turn impact Sandra as a nurse. Sandra’s unit was considered non-COVID, meaning no one with COVID was allowed. Amongst these major changes included the testing of pregnant patients coming into the hospital for coronavirus – if the patient tested negative, they would go to her unit, but if they tested positive, they would have to go to an isolated floor with one nurse pre- and post- labor. She also notes that because not all hospitals were testing pregnant women for COVID and taking these precautions, more physicians were referring pregnant patients to their hospital, adding to the busyness in her floor from having to merge the Women’s Services Unit. “It has been tough on our floor because women don’t stop having babies. They don’t stop. They are still having their babies and so we can’t,” said Sandra.

Keywords: America; citywide; Coronavirus; Essential Worker; Facility--Hospital; Health Services; Healthcare System; Hospital--Labor and Delivery Department; Hospital--Women's Services Unit (WSU); Medical Field; Methodist Hospital (Texas); Pandemic; Pregnancy--COVID-19 (Disease); Public Health Measures; Registered Nurse; San Antonio, Texas; United States

Subjects: Coronavirus infections--Diagnosis; COVID-19 (Disease); COVID-19 (Disease)--Health aspects; COVID-19 (Disease)--Prevention; COVID-19 (Disease)--Safety Measures

14:03 - Safety Precautions at Work: Visitation, PPE, Education

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Segment Synopsis: Sandra emphasizes the importance on the decision to cease visitation at Methodist Hospital – saying that this precaution taken by the hospital made sure that staff and patients were as safe as possible through the added risk of coronavirus. This as well minimized the amount of exposure coming from outside into the hospital.

Methodist as well begin having PPE (personal protection equipment) being delivered every four hours to every floor. This included more masks, sanitizing wipes, and other equipment. Along with this a buddy system was emplaced for nurses in which one nurse read out safety and equipment instructions to the other to ensure proper usage.
Sandra says that her hospital didn’t hit a shortage of supplies because they jumped on PPE right away, lamenting that other states and facilities were not as fortunate.

Sandra ensures that she feels safe because she’s on a COVID negative floor, as well as because the hospital enforced proper education around safety equipment.

Keywords: America; citywide; Coronavirus; Essential Worker; Facility--Hospital; Health Services; Healthcare System; Hospital--Labor and Delivery Department; Hospital--Women's Services Unit (WSU); Medical Field; Methodist Hospital (Texas); Pandemic; Personal Protective Equipment (PPE); Public Health Measures; Registered Nurse; San Antonio, Texas; United States

Subjects: Coronavirus infections--Diagnosis; COVID-19 (Disease); COVID-19 (Disease)--Patients; COVID-19 (Disease)--Prevention; COVID-19 (Disease)--Safety measures

18:33 - Work Impact on Social Interactions: Post-Work Safety Routine

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Segment Synopsis: Working as a registered nurse and spending long hours at the hospital during COVID-19 has changed the way Sandra is able to socially interact with others, such as family members. She goes through her typical daily routine going into work, which includes having her temperature taken and getting a mask she wears throughout her shift. However, her routine of leaving the hospital and going home has had changed entirely.

This requires Sandra and her co-workers to wipe down everything they used during their shift (e.g. pens, stethoscope), walking to their car and immediately taking off and cleaning their shoes. Once home, Sandra explains that most nurses, herself included, go in through the garage or shoeless through their front door, take off their scrubs and place them in a designated area or bag, and immediately shower before having any contact with family. However, if a nurse is in direct contact and taking care of a COVID positive patient before leaving the hospital they must shower there, wear different shoes when leaving, and shower again once they get home.

Sandra says it is not just the nurses at the hospital taking these safety measures. It as well involves patient care assistants, housekeepers, lab techs, etc.


Keywords: America; Coronavirus; Essential Worker; Facility--Hospital; Health Services; Healthcare System; Medical Field; Methodist Hospital (Texas); Pandemic; Personal Protective Equipment (PPE); Public Health Measures; Registered Nurse; San Antonio, Texas; United States

Subjects: Coronavirus infections--Diagnosis; COVID-19 (Disease); COVID-19 (Disease)--Patients; COVID-19 (Disease)--Prevention; COVID-19 (Disease)--Safety measures

22:06 - Benefits of Latinidad at Work: Communication & Comfort

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Segment Synopsis: Sandra speaks to the fact that COVID doesn’t discriminate, but that it seems that people of color are being more affected. She talks about how her hospital employs nurses of all nationalities and origins, but that since she’s in San Antonio, there are a lot of Hispanic employees and patients.

With San Antonio having a high population of Spanish speaking folks – Sandra is happy that she is able to speak Spanish with Hispanic patients, as it is difficult for them and for staff to navigate translating. She says that being able to communicate with her Hispanic patients in Spanish in addition to sharing a culture helps alleviate their hospital fears. This is especially beneficial now, according to Sandra, given that visitors are not allowed in the hospital and compounded by the fact that the Latin community has difficulties being isolated because families are very close.

Keywords: America; Coronavirus; Essential Worker; Facility--Hospital; Health Services; Healthcare System; Latinx Community; Medical Field; Methodist Hospital (Texas); Pandemic; Registered Nurse; San Antonio, Texas; United States

Subjects: COVID-19 (Disease); Hispanic Americans--United States; Hispanics (United States); Latino Americans; Latinos (United States); Spanish language--Usage; Spanish-speaking people (United States)

26:48 - Family Interactions: Challenges & Precautions

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Segment Synopsis: Sandra says interactions with her family have changed due to coronavirus. Visits with her 88-year-old mother are done through social distancing where her sister and her stand outside to talk if they’ve had any contact with other people during the day. She explains that her and her sister have been very careful with distancing and so they are able to go into their mother’s house with extreme care, as she is aware the elderly, are more adversely affected.

However, Sandra’s sister, husband, and herself have faced difficulties in gathering to play music, as they are all mariachis. She explains that at the beginning of the pandemic, they weren’t performing, but as the state has started to open up, they have begun to perform again. They have been taking precautions while performing, such as keeping distance from their clients and from one another, wearing a mask until they get to the place where they’re performing, and performing serenatas outside. She explains that, strangely, she feels safest at the hospital due to all the precautions in that environment.

Keywords: America; Coronavirus; Pandemic; Public Health Measures; San Antonio, Texas; Social Distancing; United States

Subjects: COVID-19 (Diease)--Safety measures; COVID-19 (Disease); COVID-19 (Disease)--Prevention; Mariachi musicians; Quarantine--Texas; Quarantine--United States; Social Interaction--United States

34:15 - Young Children & Online Schooling: A Parent's Perspective

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Segment Synopsis: Sandra and other parents have faced difficulties trying to enforce and sustain virtual learning for their children. She explains how mothers were now faced with a magnitude of added tasks surrounding their children’s learning, such as acting as a teacher, a facilitator for pulling up virtual resources, cooking meals and as an enforcer of study time. She says it is difficult for young children to stay engaged with online learning, with mothers oftentimes having to sit with them to make sure they were doing their work. She also notes not all mothers were able to do this as they had work, and that mothers who were also teachers had to transition into being teachers for their class and teachers for their kids.

However, she adds that schools have helped their students by distributing chrome books for online learning. She also speaks about how there were glitches with the online learning services and different types of computers, noting that teachers had to try to send out resources to each kid. She says it was difficult to maintain communication between parents, teachers, and children, and that she felt that if parents weren’t there pushing their children to learn at home, they would fall through the cracks. Sandra’s children are doing summer camp, which originally was going to allow in-person learning but has since changed to all online learning due to spikes in virus cases in Texas.

Keywords: America; Coronavirus; Education--Distance Learning Applications; Education--Online-Learning; Pandemic; San Antonio, Texas; Social Distancing; United States

Subjects: COVID-19 (Disease); COVID-19 (Disease)--Prevention; Public Institutions; Quarantine--United States; Quarantine-Texas; Social interaction--Technological innovations; youth

43:59 - Keeping Young Children Entertained

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Segment Synopsis: Sandra talks about how parents, including herself, have tried to keep children entertained. She explains that many people tried to do things outdoors with their children, such as hopscotch or the lake. Her daughters both play volleyball, so she notes they went out to play a couple of times. She talks about how, recently, her eldest daughter has started going to volleyball clinics that replace the seasons they had already paid for at school.

Keywords: America; Coronavirus; Pandemic; Quarantine--Pastimes; San Antonio, Texas; Social Distancing; United States

Subjects: Childhood; COVID-19 (Disease); Quarantine--America; Quarantine--Social Aspects; Quarantine--Texas; Quarantine--United States; Social Interaction--United States; youth

47:08 - Realizing the Impact of COVID-19

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Segment Synopsis: Sandra talks about the events that first made her realize the COVID-19 crisis was as critical as we now know. She explains that the key moments in her realization were: when the hospital cleared out visitors, when she heard stories from nurses up in New York and New Jersey, and when a friend and co-worker of hers was recruited to go help a healthcare facility in New Jersey. She also talks about how for a long-time-cases were minimal in San Antonio, but that now she knows multiple people who are sick or have been sick with the virus.

Keywords: America; Coronavirus; Essential Worker; Facility--Hospital; Healthcare Services; Medical Field; Pandemic; Registered Nurse; San Antonio, Texas; Traveling Nurse; United States

Subjects: Coronavirus infections--Diagnosis; COVID-19 (Disease); Nurses--Supply and demand--New Jersey; Nurses--Supply and demand--New York (State)