When Cheryl Rand, a nurse at The Nebraska Medical Center, first learned that the hospital was designing a special unit just for treating contagious and deadly organisms such as smallpox and SARS, Rand had only one thing to say: “I have to be a part of this.”
Now, nearly a year later as the hospital’s biocontainment unit prepares to open, Rand is one of 15 registered nurses, seven respiratory therapists and seven technicians who have been selected and specially trained to staff the unit, should it be needed.
“I’ve worked at the hospital for 25 years, and this is easily the most exciting and innovative project that I’ve ever worked on,” said Rand, 45, and mother of a 19-year-old daughter.
Rand said she’s also proud to bear the responsibility of being trained to work in the country’s largest – and only public – biocontainment unit.
“It’s a chance to help people in a way that only a few people can,” she said.
For now, she will continue to work as a telemetry nurse caring for patients who need heart monitoring. However, Rand and her co-workers are ready to swing into action should the hospital get word that it’s getting a possible case of smallpox, avian influenza or eight other identified infectious conditions.
In most cases, it would start with a phone call, Rand said. Then the staff members would assemble at the hospital, with the mission of having the unit up and running in less than four hours. Preparing the unit would depend on the suspected illness, but would likely include studying the disease, stocking supplies and medicines, starting up the equipment and organizing the required protective gear, she said.
Once the patient arrives at the hospital, using a specially designed stretcher, the staff would bring the patient to the unit and continue to work in 12-hour shifts until the danger had passed, she said.
The idea of treating patients who might be suffering from lethal and highly contagious diseases used to worry her. Those concerns turned to confidence after Rand learned about the diseases, was trained how to protect herself and saw how the unit is designed to contain the contamination.
Being called in to work in the biocontainment unit remains a possibility in the back of her mind, but Rand said she hasn’t let those possibilities change her life. She doesn’t carry a pager, sleeps soundly at night and still has vacation plans.
“There’s a chance that a year or two will pass and we won’t be needed,” Rand said. “Why should I live my life waiting for something that may never happen? But if it does, I am ready.”