129: Diane Ross

Microbiologist

Diane Ross is a full time Microbiologist at Penn State Health St Joseph’s Hospital.  She was promoted during the pandemic to  the manager of Microbiology and Molecular Disease.  Her job required her to figure out how to bring covid testing into the hospital lab, rather than sending tests out, in order to get more rapid results. Although Diane didn’t personally see patients, and therefore didn’t consider herself at high risk to contract Covid, she was required to put in many more hours of work to get all the testing done and to work in infection control.  She was very sad to see how lonely the covid patients were being isolated behind closed doors, not being able to leave their hospital room, and not being able to have any visitors. The only people they got to see were hospital staff covered head to toe in PPE equipment. Diane was very grateful though to have the camaraderie of her co-workers and staff during the pandemic. She was touched by the willingness of her colleagues to be flexible and pull together. It made her work team much stronger and much closer.

It was stressful for Diane to not be able to see her adult children who live in Florida. Her parents too, she could only visit with at a distance. Yet, she feels fortunate that they all stayed healthy and that she and her spouse could both keep working during the shutdown so they did not suffer financially. 

Diane feels that the Pandemic brought out the good in people and that folks were kinder and more tolerant. She remains very hopeful for the end of Covid, and is looking forward to the day when she can talk to a stranger without a mask and not fear for her health. She is also very optimistic about the vaccine technology and believes it will only get better and better, eventually becoming incorporated into our lives like the annual flu shot.