Faith sustains Austin health care workers during pandemic

By Ricardo Gandara | Correspondent

When Frances Simpson returns home after a nursing shift, she can no longer march through the front door and greet her husband, Robert, and teenage son and daughter. In normal times, her arrival might involve a hug or kiss or a pleasant greeting like “Mom’s home!”
Instead, she heads straight into the garage to change from her hospital scrubs into the regular clothes and shoes she keeps there. Her work clothes are washed separately from other laundry. She washes her hands again before entering the house.
Such is the routine for front-line health care workers since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March. Not only is the strict protocol of protection in the workplace essential, equally important is protecting one’s family after a day at work.
“It’s been important for me to be vigilant about everything, and I don’t get out much,” Simpson said.
Simpson, a nurse for 25 years and a parishioner of St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Austin, supervises nurses in the intensive care unit at Austin’s Seton Medical Center where COVID-19 patients are treated. Although her staff has much closer contact with COVID-19 patients than she does, the risk is still there.
In addition to her new routine after work, Simpson takes her temperature at home before going into work. Then she fills out an online screening form.
“You have to be symptom free,” she said. The protection increases even more at the hospital as ICU workers wear gowns and special masks, face shields and gloves.
“Nurses have to be prepared before going to a room with a patient, and they must be efficient,” she said.
Dr. Lisa Ellis, a parishioner of St. Theresa Parish in Austin, is an infectious disease specialist who is also fighting the everyday threat of the virus. She works with Austin Infectious Disease Consultants, a group that advises Austin area doctors and hospitals on how to treat COVID-19 patients. She conducts virtual visits with people recovering from the disease.
Both Ellis and Simpson have seen a markedly changed workplace over the last several months. Although Ellis has little direct contact with patients, her work helps guide health care professionals. As she continues her role in this new unnerving environment, her faith and trust in God remain steadfast.
“My faith plays a big role,” Ellis said. “There is comfort that God is with us, and that he doesn’t want us to be afraid.”
Before March, Ellis regularly attended daily Mass. Now, she reads Scripture and prays the rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.
Simpson is unsure about how she would get through these trying times without the presence of God in her life.
“It’s a tremendous support and feeling of comfort that comes from faith to know God will help me through,” she said.
She also greatly appreciates the support of her family. Since March, her mother, Marie Wood, has been regularly leading the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.
“We pray for those suffering from COVID, their families and their caregivers. It’s a very comforting feeling,” Simpson said.
The toll on front-line workers is hard, Simpson said.
“We have had many successful discharges and seen patients go home to their families and we celebrate with them,” she said.
But her team is also present with those suffering from the virus, and they share in the suffering with the families.
“We share in their sorrow and carry it with us,” Simpson said. “Often, when I can’t find the words, I pray quietly to myself, ‘Jesus I trust in you.’ My faith is what sustains me through these difficult times.”
Across the board, the future of treating or curing the virus is unknown. According to Ellis, the uncertainty of the disease is disconcerting.
“At times, it’s hard to tell people they’re getting better because the unexpected can make it worse,” she said.
Still, Simpson and Ellis remain hopeful.
“We’ve been through plagues, and our faith lives on,” Ellis said. “We’re going to get through this. I live by the words of St. Padre Pio — ‘pray, help, don’t worry.’”