81: Joanne Rissell
Phlebotomist, Reading Hospital
Joanne Rissell is a Phlebotomist at Reading Hospital who worked through the entire shutdown. She works 40 hours a week, doing scheduling, stocking, and primarily drawing blood. One of the biggest ways that COVID changed her job was in the resulting supply shortages. They were scrambling to restock essentials, sometimes needing to wear one mask for two weeks at a time. At one point they were even having to share isolation gowns. They needed to wear a lot more PPE at work than usual, but there was such a shortage of it.
It was very emotional for Joanne to see all of the patients that were being intubated and having trouble breathing. It’s incredibly upsetting, she emphasizes, to see people struggling to breathe. They would need to turn those patients on their stomachs periodically to help them get air, which was very hard to see. Several of her coworkers also got sick, one of whom was severely ill but did manage to pull through. Altogether, Joanne knows about 20 people who have contracted COVID, but she did not contract the virus herself.
The hospital did have a celebration to commemorate the 500th patient who was leaving the hospital after recovering from COVID. Many of the hospital staff formed a huge line as the patient was being discharged and held signs celebrating his recovery and the recovery of all the COVID patients before and after him. It was so hearting for Joanne to be able to see someone getting better after seeing so many people suffer so much. She dearly hopes that everyone will get the vaccine, and that the younger generation will be able to recover from losing such a large portion of their youth who worked through the entire shutdown. She works 40 hours a week, doing scheduling, stocking, and primarily drawing blood. One of the biggest ways that COVID changed her job was in the resulting supply shortages. They were scrambling to restock essentials, sometimes needing to wear one mask for two weeks at a time. At one point they were even having to share isolation gowns. They needed to wear a lot more PPE at work than usual, but there was such a shortage of it.
It was very emotional for Joanne to see all of the patients that were being intubated and having trouble breathing. It’s incredibly upsetting, she emphasizes, to see people struggling to breathe. They would need to turn those patients on their stomachs periodically to help them get air, which was very hard to see. Several of her coworkers also got sick, one of whom was severely ill but did manage to pull through. Altogether, Joanne knows about 20 people who have contracted COVID, but she did not contract the virus herself.
The hospital did have a celebration to commemorate the 500th patient who was leaving the hospital after recovering from COVID. Many of the hospital staff formed a huge line as the patient was being discharged and held signs celebrating his recovery and the recovery of all the COVID patients before and after him. It was so hearting for Joanne to be able to see someone getting better after seeing so many people suffer so much. She dearly hopes that everyone will get the vaccine, and that the younger generation will be able to recover from losing such a large portion of their youth.
