Meet Jenna Nagamoto, Brand New Nurse Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic
Jenna Nagamoto graduated in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, and started her first job at a hospital by the end of that same year. While other 23-year-olds were going to Old Town Scottsdale or Mill Ave to get shwastey with friends, Jenna graduated from Chamberlain University College of Nursing and started 7pm-to-7am shifts at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, in the neuro-telemetry unit..
What is neuro-telemetry, you might ask?
Jenna is a nurse for critical condition patients who need constant monitoring and care. Jenna cares for patients ranging from heart complications, diabetes, sleep disorders, or other neurological diagnoses, such as epilepsy.
On top of the pressures of getting a nursing degree, and actually applying that to a job in the medical field, Jenna was only three months into her career when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
What were your original expectations when becoming a nurse?
I’ve been around medical professionals my entire life – I was literally raised by them. My dad is an intensivist and my mom is a women’s health nurse practitioner. I knew going in that I had a lot to learn and expected my first year or two to be challenging, yet rewarding. I went in pushing myself to absorb as much information as I could, not only to learn more about medicine, but to learn more about myself.
How has working through a global pandemic changed those expectations?
COVID-19 has made the first year of nursing more challenging than I expected. At the beginning of the outbreak there were a lot of unknowns. I quickly realized, in most cases, there isn’t a “right” or “wrong” way to handle something, and the pandemic confirmed that. The CDC changed its recommendation of the safest PPE multiple times, making me question my own safety often. The hospital was constantly trying to adapt and find the best way to avoid spreading the virus, and the changes were difficult to keep up with. I learned just showing up to work is not an adequate way to learn everything I need to during this time, and I’ve been constantly doing my own research on COVID-19 to stay up to date on the latest and most accurate information. A lot of people in my life have turned to me for information and I feel a responsibility to stay informed.
What is a typical workday like for you these days? Has the time commitment changed?
As I mentioned earlier, things were constantly changing. At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak our hospital census was low, so we had very few patients on the floor. I was getting called off of one or two shifts per week. We also experienced small changes, such as limiting visitors to eventually allowing no visitors at all. As the virus progressed, we got busier again, and they dedicated certain units to be strictly for those COVID-19-positive. The hospital would take nurses from my floor and float us down to a COVID-19 unit for our shift. They were pretty desperate for nurses, and implemented monetary rewards for picking up extra shifts on the COVID-19 floors, and eventually offered additional money to anyone willing to work extra shifts on the regular units, too. For a couple weeks, I worked five 12-hour shifts, but that did not last long. The hospital has been short on a lot of supplies lately due to the pandemic, which has been incredibly frustrating. We also have implemented new ways to communicate with patients’ family members, which have also been constantly changing. A lot of patients are unable to communicate themselves, so it’s on the nurses to ensure that the family is up to date on the patient’s care and how they’re doing. Time management was already difficult, so this has definitely been a struggle.
What have you taken away from this experience, being on the front lines for your country?
Not to be cynical, but it has highlighted people’s selfishness. At the start of the outbreak, back when everyone was panic-buying toilet paper, visitors in the hospital were stealing our PPE. We used to keep an “isolation cart” outside of the patient’s room if it was needed, and we had to start hiding them. I’ve also realized the system we currently have in place has more flaws than I thought, and that there is much room for improvement in various aspects. On a more positive note, there have been numerous acts of selflessness that are more powerful than the selfish ones. Many healthcare workers were staying in hotels and quarantining apart from their families in order to reduce exposure while they worked with COVID-19 patients. Crisis response teams, which were put together with short notice, sent medical professionals to areas that needed the most care, and there were thousands of people signing up for these teams.
What do you want the general public to know about COVID-19, that we may not be able to understand from just reading the news?
Recently, in light of a certain video circulating on social media, I disabled my Instagram out of frustration. People are quick to hear one thing and believe it, especially if it is coming from someone who is allegedly qualified. At the start of the pandemic I received a chain text message full of false and ridiculous information regarding COVID-19. I remember reading it and laughing because I didn’t think anyone could believe it, but found out people really thought they could simply sip water every 15 minutes to “wash out the virus.” I want people to know regardless of where they are hearing information, they need to take it with a grain of salt. Just because someone is a doctor or scientist does not mean they have all the answers. Being hospitalized with COVID-19 means being hospitalized alone, and up until your last breath, you continue to be alone until they allow one family member to say goodbye. Everyone wants answers as to when this will end and right now nobody is sure, so continue to wear masks and be safe.
We at Brain Break know Jenna is going to do big things because bad bitchez who work hard always persevere.
Jenna would like to eventually go to graduate school and leave traditional bedside nursing behind in order to become a nurse practitioner. However, she’s currently enjoying her opportunity to learn working as a bedside RN. Her goals include learning as much as she can about every type of nursing specialty, so she can decide on which one she’d like to focus on in graduate school.
