Hello Everyone,
It’s been said that tough times don’t last, but tough people do. This is so fitting for you, our Night Nurse family. The world has changed exponentially in 2020, and even in just the past few months. After successfully working together to serve practices, patients and families through flu season, we all came together to tackle the unprecedented new era of COVID-19.
In this edition of our newsletter, you’ll hear about your fellow team members, about past team members that came back to help us, and how much the practices value your work. But more than anything else, we hope you see and hear how much we appreciate you all!
We also want to share updates on how Night Nurse is adapting to better protect our staff and meet the evolving needs of our subscribers.
In addition, we’re working to better stabilize our staffing schedule. As you’ve seen, COVID-19 initially exploded our call volume, then it dropped back to lower levels, reminiscent of summertime. While this is a nationwide scenario caused by quarantining, and not unique to Night Nurse, we’re not sitting back and waiting to see which curves coronavirus will take next. In fact, we’re growing!
This month, a large new practice in Pennsylvania (our first in PA!) just started. We’re also moving forward on negotiations with several new subscribers that should get the phones ringing more often, and soon.
With so much to share, let’s dive in with our first story!
PRAISE AND APPRECIATION FROM OUR PRACTICES
Our practices appreciate you so much! You have not only helped patients and families in need, but you’ve also made a difference in the lives of our fellow healthcare professionals!
Here are just a few of the many notes of appreciation
that poured in from practices you help every day during the COVID-19 pandemic.
CELEBRATING NATIONAL NURSES DAY, WEEK, MONTH AND YEAR!
This is a big year for nurses in so many ways! To commemorate the World Health Organization’s Year of the Nurse and Midwife, the American Nurses Association has expanded National Nurses Week to an entire month-long celebration in May. Today, on Florence Nightingale’s 200th birthday, we recognize you!
On May 5, National Nurses Day, Tami sent a heartfelt message to our nurses. In her letter, she noted “Although Night Nurses are unseen and unsung on the frontline, we provide care advice and symptom-based disposition recommendations, including emergency crisis instruction to patients, and are nonetheless, Nursing heroes. 2020 is The Year of The Nurse. Fearless Telephone Triage Nurses-I Thank You!” You can read Tami’s full letter here.
Stu also expresses his appreciation for our amazing nurses, sharing this message: “I have worked with many companies, during my professional life. None have provided me with the appreciation and satisfaction that I receive from working with all of you. Whether I’ve spoken to you in an interview, tech support or to try to help resolve a concern, all of you, in our Night Nurse family have shown me the great capacities for care and empathy that you possess and provide. During National Nurses Month, I wish to express my profound thanks for all that you do and for all the patients that you care for.”
Our CEO, Roy Pologe, shares this note to commemorate Nurses Month:
A big thank you from managers and colleagues:
WORDS OF ADMIRATION FROM OUR MEDICAL DIRECTORS
Dr. Michael Dern
To Night Nurse's Nurses...As we all navigate our way through these extraordinary times, I want to thank you all for your heartfelt efforts, for going above and beyond, and for the compassion that you continue to have for the patients during these very difficult and complex times. Some say words do not say enough and others say words do matter...again thank you for all you do every day. A very well-deserved HAPPY NURSES WEEK!
Dr. Robert Greenberg
As a medical director for Night Nurse I would like to thank you for the fabulous job you are doing during these difficult times. The world, including our medical world, has turned upside down in six short weeks. We have had to make accommodations to adjust to this craziness, and your professionalism, dedication and flexibility have been key to making this accommodation.
Nurses are one of the most respected professions in America, trusted beyond others because they are willing to place the needs of their patients above their own, day after day, night after night. Thanks for being there for our company and our community. I am proud of the service that Night Nurse provides for our patients, and you are the bulwark of that service. I appreciate you and thank you.
Dr. Peter Rappo
The poet, Kahlil Gibran said that “work is love made visible.” There is no profession that demonstrates the accuracy of this quote more than nursing.
It has been my pleasure to serve as a medical director for Night Nurse for almost two decades. In that time, I have observed the care, support, and outreach provided by our exceptional nursing staff. I would like to say “THANK YOU” for all you do...and especially during these extraordinary times!
Dr. Paul Schreiber
Like most Americans, my life is in turmoil, but unlike your lives mine is quiet turmoil. I have can see. that much of the country has rightfully recognized the valuable contributions that medical professionals are making to the rest of the nation. I realized that you guys may have been missed - working mostly at night and at a physical distance from those you help so well. I know how stressful the job often is, in the calmest of times... I can only imagine how it is in times like these. Please accept my thanks and appreciation for all the service you supply. I am proud to be a part of your team.
OUR TEAM
We love welcoming new members to the Night Nurse family, and we’re grateful to add so many new talented professionals since the last newsletter. Please extend a warm welcome to the newest RN members of the Night Nurse family: Sandra DeHond, Lori Dernier, Patricia Heinz, Stephanie Palojarvi, Courtney Powers, Kelleigh Richardson, Bridget Scott and Jacki Thomas! We’ve also welcomed a new dispatcher to our team, Valerie Amaral.
We’ve also had the good fortune of so many former Night Nurse employees returning to our team in 2020 alone! This includes many of our beloved co-workers that returned to temporarily help take COVID-19 calls when the national state emergency was declared. Please join us in welcoming BACK to Night Nurse: Julie Bouwman, Julia Boykin, Rosalind Cruz, Erin Farr, Pamela Fleming, Lindsey Goldberg, Shaylee Klock, Michelle LeBlanc, Terri McLaughlin, Tajalita Matthews, Emily Morales, Donna O'Leary, Carla Sox and Melody Weston.
GETTING TO KNOW YOU: FEATURING RN MICHELLE LEBLANC
One of the many nurses that returned to help during flu season and the initial COVID-19 crunch was Michelle LeBlanc. More than just a great RN, Michelle is a ray of light that brightens everyone’s day!
Michelle initially joined Night Nurse in 2002 and stayed with us until 2016. In her 14-year tenure, she faithfully triaged calls through multiple eras. Anyone remember the time when all RNs had to work in our office, long before we had Night Nurse client? Michelle was there. Her smarts, hard work and delightful phone manner helped us earn a great reputation with subscribers, patients and parents.
Michelle’s love of nursing started when she was very young. With a natural desire to help others, she knew she wanted to be either a nurse or a teacher. Since she grew up in a family of nurses, including her grandmother and several aunts., Michelle decided to become an RN at an early age.
Once she was old enough to work, Michelle got a part-time job assisting at a nursing home. After graduating from high school, she left her hometown of Haverhill, MA to attend nursing school at Framingham State College (now University).
While at FSC, Michelle played on the volleyball team and was introduced to the college football quarterback through mutual friends. They dated, got married, bought a house and had three wonderful children. Today, Michelle, her husband Ritchie and children Brooke, Brendan and Colby also share their home with two cats, Oreo and Brady also with their pet fish, Velvet.
Michelle was excited to return to Night Nurse and help. It allows her to be at home with her family while continuing to practice nursing. As a pediatric RN, she loves working with kids and looks forward to going back to her job as a school nurse when classes resume at some point in the future. Remember that Michelle wanted to be either an RN or a teacher? Being a school nurse helps her have the best of both worlds.
A committed lifelong learner, Michelle said “You don’t stop learning just because you’re not in school.” She loves to take adult education courses and learn new things. She may also pursue her Master’s degree sometime soon.
Thank you, Michelle, for being part of the Night Nurse family then, now and always!
OUR COVID-19 RESPONSE
COVID-19 has touched all of our lives in one way or another, and we hope that you and your family are well! As you know from our past newsletters, Night Nurse has been following and combating coronavirus for months. We were one of the earliest healthcare organizations to develop a COVID-19 protocol, which we openly shared with practices and hospitals around the country, including thousands of facilities that are not even Night Nurse subscribers. We believe that all healthcare professionals must work together to flatten the curve and swiftly bring the pandemic to its end.
We have proactively enacted many changes to better serve our practices and also protect our home office staff members. This involved changing the way we manage our dispatch operations. Since COVID-19 is spread person-to-person, it was important for us to help our dispatchers to maintain safe social distancing while also ensuring the same rapid, efficient and accurate service provided to RNs, answering service partners and on-call physicians.
As it turns out, re-inventing our dispatch operations has been a blessing in disguise! Now, nearly all of our dispatchers work from the safety of their homes. Paper faxes have been replaced with electronic transmissions and we’re operating a more efficient and modern dispatch process than ever before.
Many thanks to Lanie Martell for her creative solutions, to Todd DeBonis and Dan Holladay for supporting our technical requirements and to the entire dispatch team for their flexibility and willingness to learn new ways to innovate our business. We couldn’t be happier with the team effort and results!
With the new system in place, here are some important guidelines for RNs and Dispatchers to work together seamlessly in our new off-site dispatch program:
RNs:
Always check-in by phone or Telegram with the dispatch team when you sign in for your shift, take breaks or sign off for the evening
Dispatchers:
Always check-in by phone or Telegram with the RNs and with your fellow dispatchers when you sign in for your shift, take breaks or sign off for the evening
Everyone:
When in doubt, over-communicate until we have this system down to a science!
Keep all communications on a professional level, without any improper, unsuitable or offensive messages. This also isn’t the place to discuss politics, religion or other sensitive topics.
In your communications, do continue your supportive team spirit! These interactions may be more important than ever before as we work together as front-line responders, during this pandemic.
DID YOU KNOW?
Five Lesser Known Facts about Florence Nightingale. While we all know her as the founder of modern nursing and for her innovations in professionalizing our industry, Florence Nightingale also contributed in many other areas. Born 200 years ago today on May 12, 1820, here are five lesser-known facts about this nursing hero.
- • She fluently spoke many languages, including English, French, German and Italian.
- • Florence decided to be a nurse at the age of 16. By 30 she was the superintendent of London-based women’s hospital.
- • Florence’s pioneering work in nursing also included her contributions to make pie charts a standard way to communicate data. Historians recognize her as an early adopter and key promoter of this valuable reporting tool.
- • She played a significant role in enacting innovative sanitation laws to improve health conditions and life expectancy.
- • You can still hear her voice today! Working with Thomas Edison’s team and their early phonograph experiments, Florence captured a brief message to inspire us.
You can hear Florence on YouTube here.
“I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse.”
— Florence Nightingale
YOUR NIGHT NURSE SUPPORT TEAM: DANIELLE RAMOS
In addition to the many RNs that returned to Night Nurse this year, we also had the good fortune of welcoming back dispatcher Danielle Ramos. Danielle first joined Night Nurse in August 2012. At the time, she was going to school to pursue her dream of working in the healthcare field. Night Nurse was a perfect fit, especially since Danielle lives close to our corporate headquarters in Framingham, MA.
She initially started with night and weekend dispatch shifts, when we soon recognized her outstanding abilities. Night Nurse was growing at a rapid pace, so we increased her hours and she played a more important role in our organization due to her background in the medical industry, remarkable professionalism and strong people skills.
However, we weren’t the only company to recognize Danielle’s outstanding abilities. In 2017, she got a great job as a surgical tech at Leonard Morse Hospital in Natick, MA, part of the MetroWest Medical Center. Danielle fortunately stayed on with us for a while at reduced hours, juggling the two jobs for a couple of years. Then she had to take a break from Night Nurse to focus on her career in the operating room and raising her young son, Kymoni.
Earlier this year, MetroWest Medical decided to reorganize their business, which gave Danielle time to come back and work with us again. We’re so happy to have her back!
Today, Danielle is one of our stellar at-home dispatchers while also handling her new role in the MetroWest organization in the Materials Management department. She and her manager - “The Material Girls” – make sure that the hospital system is well prepared to handle all patient needs. Danielle’s experience as a surgical tech give her unique insights to anticipate trends and stock hospital departments with critical materials, particularly since COVID-19 has drastically changed the medical industry.
Night Nurse has also played a very important role in Danielle’s life. When she first joined us, not only was she in college but she was also expecting Kymoni. Danielle fondly remembers, “Night Nurse allowed me to go to school, work and be a mom all at the same time. They offered me the flexibility I needed to coordinate all of these important life events at the same time.” She added, “Stu was a rock for me, particularly after my son was diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA). He fueled me with incredible confidence through this difficult time, constantly providing hope and support.”
Danielle has been so fond of Night Nurse that she referred us to two more fantastic dispatchers.
Thank you for returning to Night Nurse, Danielle! We’re so happy to have you back!
KEEP IN TOUCH – WE’RE IN THIS TOGETHER!
Thank you again for being part of the Night Nurse family! Though we’re all quarantined in our own places, we’re still one united team. Please reach out to us at any time to touch base. We’re always here and always love to hear from you!
Sincerely,
Tami and Stu
Stuart Pologe, COO, stuart@nightnursetriage.com
Tami Regan, RN, CHT-CNO, tami@nightnursetriage.com
Night Nurse Inc.
