How the first COVID RN is growing the nursing team at Providence in Everett
RN Robin, who cared for the first COVID patient in the United States, now helps identify and hire world-class nurses at Providence Regional Medical Center Everett (PRMCE). We spoke recently with Robin about her 34-year nursing career, why she chose to stay in Everett after working as a travel nurse, and how PRMCE’s commitment to excellence ensured Robin and her fellow caregivers were protected during the pandemic.
From English major to travel nurse to a full-time RN at PRMCE
Robin pursued an English degree in college but found her true calling when she enrolled in nursing school a year post graduation. She fell in love with the dynamic nature of nursing, where each day, she faced new challenges, met new people and ultimately, could make tangible differences in their lives. Eager to expand her horizons, she moved to the United States from Canada on a travel contract and worked in Chicago, Kentucky and Las Vegas before settling in Seattle in 2005. After interviewing with several hospitals, she felt the best rapport with the manager at PRMCE. At Providence and in the city of Everett, she found a family and a home.
One of the reasons that Robin stays with Providence is our Mission to deliver high-quality, compassionate care, especially to those who are underserved and vulnerable. She says she loves that she can “meet everybody exactly where they are in life.” She finds fulfillment in this, because she knows that “at the end of the day, I’ve done something important to somebody.”
Robin worked as an emergency department RN until 2015, when she ruptured her Achilles tendon and needed to go on light duty. She jokes, “They didn’t want me on a knee scooter running around the emergency department for some weird reason.” Her manager offered her a role making patient follow-up calls. Despite her initial reluctance, Robin discovered that she loved it. “I really liked being able to concentrate hard on one person, get them what they need and then move on and concentrate hard on the next person.”
Caring for the first COVID patient in the country
Early in her career, Robin developed a love for infectious disease care when she began caring for patients at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the late 1980s. In 2014, Ebola became a concern. So, when the director of the emergency department asked for volunteers for an emergency preparedness team, Robin raised her hand. “The infection prevention manager and I were tapped to become the leaders of the High Consequence Infectious Disease team and the Biocontainment Unit.”
In January 2020, the team had just finished a county wide Ebola tabletop exercise and had been regularly training with the nursing team for such an event. Robin says, “About 9:00 that night I got a phone call from the infection prevention manager who said, ‘I think we need to open the biocontainment unit.’ I thought she was joking but she said, ‘Seriously, we need to do this,’ and she explained it to me. I put my scrubs back on, headed back to the hospital and this guy came in and the world turned upside down.”
One of the major principles of high-consequence infectious disease management is limiting the number of people that are in the room with the patient, which meant that the nursing staff was in the room, while the doctor stayed outside. “The infectious disease doctor got on the phone on one side of the glass wall and the patient got on the phone on the other side of the glass wall. We all learned to write backwards on the glass wall for things we needed.” The staff used Sharpies and walkie talkies to communicate and care for the first COVID patient, who was hospitalized for 10 days. Because the Everett team had been so prepared, they were in a position to provide PPE to other hospitals that needed it and give trainings on donning and doffing. “We’d done a lot of training beforehand. We were incredibly lucky.”
Accelerating the hiring process at PRMCE, one RN at a time
In Robin’s new role as a Peer Leader Interviewer, she’s now focused on bringing in the next generation of nurses for the hospital. By serving as a single interviewer for all units, she speeds up the interview process for managers and candidates. Robin meets with hiring managers regularly to talk about what they’re looking for in their departments. And since she’s entirely focused on hiring, she can bring in prospective candidates faster.
“Instead of a candidate having to interview three different times for three different units, I interview them once, determine their best fit, and see if we can make a match,” Robin explains.
Robin’s 34-year history as a nurse and 19-year history at Providence in Everett have given her a unique perspective. “I have relationships with the managers in the hospital. I know what my struggles were when I was working at the bedside, and they haven’t changed a whole lot, so I can speak to those struggles. I have a connection to both the candidates and the managers because I am a nurse. We speak the same language.”
Like most hospitals, PRMCE lost nursing staff during and after the pandemic. Robin says, “We’re actively rebuilding our nursing staff and I think the biggest attributes that I look for in a new nurse are flexibility, willingness to learn and enthusiasm.”
Robin enjoys finding RNs that best fit the units in the hospital and welcoming them to PRMCE. “When I moved here as a traveler, I was welcomed into the unit,” she says. “And when I came on staff, I was even more welcomed. I’ve created sort of a family here.” That’s the experience she hopes to replicate with new hires.
Even though she’s delighted to offer candidates excellent pay and benefit packages, Robin wants nurses to come to Everett who are motivated by the Mission and the familial atmosphere. She says, “I want people who are genuinely enthusiastic about coming to Everett and becoming a nurse at our hospital. If you’re only here to collect a paycheck, you’re not invested in the people, you’re not invested in the hospital, you’re not invested in the patient population.”
Living and working in Everett, Washington
Originally from Canada, Robin chose Everett for its proximity to the border, but now Everett is home.
She says, “Everett is like a small town with big city amenities. You have all these good shops, a really good theater, a symphony, nightclubs. I can get some of the best food I’ve ever eaten in my life in little old Everett. And I think that’s fabulous because I can also wear my jeans to do it. All of that is here, but it’s still small enough that when I walk into the grocery store, my chances of running into someone I know are really high.”
As an extremely outdoorsy person, Robin also loves that she can “walk out my door and within an hour be in be in the mountains, away from everybody. I do a lot of hiking, backpacking, mountain climbing, hanging out on the beach. I love Everett.”
Interested in working with us?
We’re actively hiring nurses across specialties, with day, night and weekend shifts available. View jobs in Everett.