Kathleen Gerber ends each workday with a ritual that serves as a reminder of the menace she and her nursing home staff face.
She pulls into the garage and changes out of her work clothes and shoes. Then she wipes down the car’s steering wheel, the dashboard and the door handle with disinfectant. Only then does she go inside and greet her family.
“This has gone on for a long time,” she says. “An endless marathon.”
Six months into this war to keep the coronavirus out of the Cherry Hill Manor Nursing and Rehab Center — a war in which they’ve sadly lost some battles — everything about her job as administrator has changed, as too has the job for her staff of caregivers.
“This is an industry that hugs,” she says. “We hug one another, hug family members. Human touch can be a resident’s best therapy.“
But when news broke this March of the pandemic’s arrival, all that changed. As other Rhode Island nursing homes reported infected residents and staff, Cherry Hill tried to slam the door on the virus. “We were almost yelling at each other: ‘Stop touching! Stop kissing! No, you can’t bring in food from home!’”
About three weeks later, despite screenings of staff and visitors, the Johnston nursing home had a resident test positive.
“One day everything is normal, and then we get the word we have a positive case. Immediately we had to start moving residents to an isolation wing.” Visits were canceled and residents were restricted from leaving their rooms. “All in one day.”
“It’s a very different atmosphere now, in the sense that it is so much more about paying attention to detail and regulations and not as free-flowing, not as creative, not as touchy-feely.
“For the families, it’s been extremely sad. They don’t see their relatives. A lot of folks [residents] can’t participate in Zoom calls or FaceTime.”
Gerber worries, too, about keeping up the spirits of her staff.
“I think we have had every ice cream and food truck stop in here.”
There have been fun competitions among workers, like the “laundry games” where staff compete to see who can match the socks the fastest and race through a series of cones without tipping over their laundry loads.
Many workers were afraid to catch the virus that contributed to 20 residents dying, Gerber says, but they came to work anyway.
“We take complete responsibility for ourselves. If you do these things you will be fine. I make sure I don’t get COVID and I make sure I don’t spread COVID.”
And that’s why she leaves her work shoes in the garage.