From Pandemic Nurse to Home Health

This nurse talks about her move from coast to coast as a pandemic nurse before settling in on home health

Welcome to Nurse Ascent, a twice-weekly newsletter created by nurses for nurses. This week, one nurse shares her journey working in the hospital during the COVID pandemic before burning out and deciding to try working in home health. We also discuss the EPA and HHS actions against microplastics, how increased health costs may shape midterms, and a new discovery linking hypertension and high cortisol.

But first, who else is looking for a better after-work wind-down?

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Nurse Spotlight: Elida Abreu RN, BSN

What I do for work

I currently work as a full-time home care nurse case manager for the largest health care system in the Boston area. Before this, I worked on a liver and kidney transplant floor before working as a system wide resource nurse for 4 hospitals.

How I got here

After graduation, I accepted a job from a Boston-area hospital as a registered nurse on a liver and kidney transplant floor. This job right out of nursing school was very challenging as I was working nights and having a hard time adjusting. I stayed there for a little over 2 years before I accepted a job in Southern California, as a system wide resource nurse for a large health care system. I was expected to work at 4 different hospitals and in a variety of floor specialties. I stayed at this job for a little over 4 years where I learned so much during this time, but since working during the pandemic, I felt burn out and ready to try a different path in my nursing career. When I moved back across the country, I decided to give home health a try.

Headlines in Healthcare

HHS States Its Initiative Against Microplastics

Last week, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. officially labeled microplastics a "human health threat" and announced their new actions, according to preparedfoods.com. The EPA added this to its drinking water action, allowing for stricter monitoring of water. The HHS launched a $144 million "Systematic Targeting Of MicroPlastics" (STOMP) program via ARPA-H to study how microplastics affect human health and also develop methods to remove them from the body.

Increased Healthcare Cost Still Top Concern

The cost of healthcare in the U.S. continues to grow and has some of the highest rates among peer countries, spending more than any other large, wealthy country, according to Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker. Health insurance premiums have increased across both commercial and individual marketplaces. So far this year, one million fewer people have enrolled in health insurance plans and experts expect that midterm elections will sustain attention surrounding ACA tax credit restoration, reverse Medicare cuts, and expanding health savings accounts due to the impact on the cost of living for many of Americans.

Connection Made Between Hypertension and Cortisol

Mount Sinai released a study showing that nearly 30% of patients with resistant hypertension (a condition where blood pressure stays high even though patients take three or more different blood pressure medications) have a hormone disorder related to high levels of cortisol, commonly known as the stress hormone. This finding is important because it shows that excess cortisol is far more common in these patients than previously believed. According to Science Daily, 10 million people across the US are affected by this condition and this discovery could lead to important new testing and treatments.

More on Elida

A day in my life

I am a mom of a 5-year-old boy and 2-year-old girl, so my day starts at 7am, getting the kids up and ready for school and day care. I typically begin my work day at around 8:30am and am expected to see about 6 patients daily. A typical case load for my role is about 25-35 patients depending on how busy it is. This positions allows me to be done with the patient visits sometime between 2-3pm, when I typically have to spend 2-4 hours more in the evening to finish up notes, review patients charts, make phone calls to provider offices, and schedule my own patients for the following day.

My self-care routine

Most nights, I try to spend about 1 hour most nights exercising in our home gym after I do shower and bedtime with the kids. On the nights when I don’t exercise, I tend to watch something on TV and hang out with my husband. During the day, I also enjoy hiking with my husband, kids and 2 labs on the weekends, depending on how the weather is here in Massachusetts.

Share your story & be entered to win

As part of our effort to spotlight nurses, we’d love to feature you in an upcoming issue of Nurse Ascent! Share your story by filling out our quick interview form, and you’ll be entered into a raffle to win a $50 gift card.

An image of author Katie Scoggins is pictured.

Meet the author:
Katie Scoggins
(RN, BSN & Health Writer)

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