4

Cities/Towns

12

Frontline Workers

3

Conversations

The following contains interactive audio elements.

How to Listen:

Move your cursor over the underlined, highlighted words and click to hear that particular piece of audio and to read the broader context of the speaker’s quote.

How to Listen:

Move your cursor over the underlined, highlighted words and click to hear that particular piece of audio and to read the broader context of the speaker’s quote.

Melanie decided to become a nurse when her diabetic grandmother back in the Phillippines was diagnosed with kidney failure and underwent peritoneal dialysis. All she wanted to do was alleviate her pain and suffering. Today, after nearly 30 years of being a nurse in the Little Rock area, Melanie finds herself at the bedside of patients ☊ suffering from COVID-19 without their family members next to them. Now, more than ever, “It is our job to really be an advocate ☊. We really have to advocate over and over and over again.”

In this week’s kit, Arkansas healthcare workers share how they are fulfilling vocations inspired by the sufferings and deaths of loved ones that make you realize that “nothing matters more ☊ than someone’s life and someone being healthy.” Despite the enormous physical and mental toll this virus has taken on their own lives ☊, often without hazard pay ☊, hospital and clinic staff across the state remain compelled to fulfill their oaths ☊ despite being frustrated by larger forces creating fear among patients and impeding their access to essential healthcare.

According to participants, the fear ☊ that patients have is real. For many, a positive test leads to impossible choices ☊ between paying bills, providing for one’s family, or risking illness and exposure to others. In communities where absences can lead to attendance points, nurses and office managers hear of patients working 16-hour shifts ☊ while sick, refusing tests ☊ but requesting treatments for symptoms, or requesting a glass of cold water ☊ before temperature checks. Among non-Covid patients, the fear of contracting the virus has also resulted in many missed appointments and essential prescription refills. Telehealth services ☊ are emerging as an adaptive solution, but technology access especially in rural parts of the state continue to create barriers.

While the day-to-day uncertainty ☊ of staffing issues, family responsibilities and risks to their own health have led to what one participant called “uncomfortable dreams,” ☊ an ethic of people first ☊ runs strong among frontline healthcare workers. Behind the data and the decision-making, “it’s the stories of people that matter,” and “they need to be seen.”

Looking ahead to the future, we’d all be wise to take a lesson from the playbook outlined in these conversations: good common sense ☊, compassion as normalcy ☊, and treating people not as aliens ☊ but as if we all breathe the same air ☊ and are in this together.

Constellation Kit

Explore this collection of graphics that were inspired by the conversations and created by local artists. Each graphic links out to a larger collection with various formats designed for social. Search by theme, download freely, amplify and share generously. Give back if you can.