55: Alyssa Moore

Nurse, Highlands Retirement Community

Alyse, an LPN of 13 years, says the #1 goal of the facility was safety of the residence. She worked continually through the pandemic, even though her husband and both their parents contracted COVID.

Having the residents be so isolated was hard on them but also on the staff, because they are close to these people and felt so bad for them. So, the staff became their life line, their support, their family. “Attempts were made to set up virtual meetings with family or visitations if possible. But we were their support system.” She described the team she works with as “fantastic.” 

Despite doing all they could, watching residents test positive and occasionally pass away was heart breaking. One of the toughest was as she (Alyse) administered morphine to an ailing/dyeing patient, while the daughter watched from the other side of a window. Unable to be next to her parent, for fear of her own safety and that of others whom she could infected. That’s the moment Alyse says, “that I realized how real this was.

Her hope is that we come out the other side, into a sense of normalcy and socialization once again.