LYNN — Only a few months ago, nurse practitioner Marita Gove’s job was a lot different. She worked in a high school, caring for students with a variety of medical needs. Now, schools are closed, and she wears gloves, a mask, and gown every day while dealing directly with people who may have COVID-19.
Gove is a nurse practitioner for Lynn Community Health Center, and currently works in the main lobby, where she is truly a “frontline” worker. Having previously been stationed at the health center’s satellite clinic at Lynn English, she now works at the “PUI” — meaning “person-under-investigation” — station at Lynn Community Health Center’s Union Street building.
Gove’s job is to triage patients who are showing symptoms consistent with COVID-19, or patients who may have come in contact with someone with COVID-19. At first, her new job assignment was nerve-wracking, but now she faces it with a sense of duty.
“Initially, it was much more anxiety-provoking,” Gove said. “But, I think as with everything, the more you do it, the more you get into a rhythm, and the more it seems normal.”
Each day, Gove checks potential coronavirus patients’ vital signs, looks for symptoms, and asks questions about potential exposure. Those who “screen in” are immediately sent to the health center’s testing site, a tent in the Element Care parking lot on Buffum Street, where they receive a nasal swab to test for the coronavirus.
Dressed in personal protective equipment from head to toe — with everything from a hair net to protective goggles — Gove said she does feel somewhat safe.
“We’ve always had enough PPE, and we’ve never been in a position where we don’t have enough equipment. That’s extremely comforting,” Gove said.
Since the beginning of the outbreak, COVID-19 patients and potential patients have been separated from patients arriving at the health center for other reasons. The separation happens at the entrance to the building, and is maintained throughout patients’ visits. According to Gove, more people are coming in to the Lynn Community Health Center’s PUI station now, because, as of last week, asymptomatic people are beginning to be tested for COVID-19 — before, the advice for those people was just to stay home.
Gove said she’s actually glad more people are coming in for tests. The health center has sufficient equipment for testing large numbers of people, and it was always hard to tell someone “stay home, and wait and see” if they indeed have COVID-19.
In addition to patients, workers, like Gove, are examined at the beginning of each work shift. Their temperatures are taken, and they fill out a questionnaire about COVID-19 symptoms and potential contacts.
Gove has a husband and three children and is from Medford. She says now, more than ever, she feels her professional skills are needed.
“I think most people who go into healthcare, it’s a helping profession, and I think most people have a sense of duty upon deciding this is what they want to do,” Gove said. “This is the biggest need I’ve felt for my professional skills since being a nurse practitioner, which has been 10 years.”
Colleagues, patients, and friends have been reaching out to offer thanks and support to Gove, and she said it also feels good to see the abundance of “thank-you-healthcare-workers” signs and messages from strangers on a daily basis.
“It really is everybody working together, and it really makes a big difference when you feel like there are people around who recognize what you need to do,” she said.
While she is truly an essential worker, Gove said she is also just happy to be working in any capacity, and recognizes how many people have been put out of work due to the pandemic.
“Sometimes, I feel pretty good that I get to go to work and I get to leave my house, I get to see other people, even if it’s emotionally exhausting sometimes,” Gove said. “My life is closer to my normal life than a lot of other people.”
David McLellan can be reached at [email protected].
