Rutgers Nursing Magazine - Summer 2021

R U T G E R S N U R S I N G / S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 2 1 6 / 7 ASHLEY LOPEZ (BS, RN) A graduate of New Brunswick Health Science Technology High School, and the first in her family to pursue college, Ashley Lopez says that a nursing career has been her goal since childhood. She entered the four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing program in fall 2016, and finished in May 2020, during the peak months of COVID-19 in New Jersey. She quickly landed a job in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), happy that the state issued emer- gency licenses for nurses in May, allowing her to start work while studying for her Boards. COVID-19 rarely infects babies, but “policies and protocols affecting families with newborns in the NICU changed because of COVID-19,” she says. The large unit with an open floor plan houses 50 to 60 infant patients and, generally, parent visitation is encouraged around the clock. But COVID-19 safety protocols included limiting visitation to two-hour stays, twice per day, while enforcing social distancing, to protect families and staff. In situations where parents felt they might have been exposed to the virus, “we Face Timed with them, making sure they were OK, and tried to help them through the period of not seeing their newborns.” Looking back to day one of her job, Lopez says, “COVID-19 impacted all of us, but definitely the adult ICUs were hit much harder. The hospital as a whole came together in response to the challenging times.”