A farewell letter from a former frontline healthcare worker
A Final Goodbye
Dear ICU Staff,
It seems as if it was just yesterday when I first walked down the long ominous hallway of the Intensive Care Unit. I remember feeling eager to work and willing to prove my usefulness as a newly hired surge Patient Care Technician, however, at the same time I was, admittedly, terrified. I can recall the first time I peered down both wings of the corridor only to see rows and rows of Isolations Carts lined up with no end in sight. Or the first time I gowned up from head to toe in PPE, my heart pounding through my chest as I prepared to step into the room of my first Covid positive patient. I didn’t know what to feel except to feel afraid. Up until that moment, I had never worked in a hospital before or knew what exactly what the job duties of a nurse entailed. I was a fresh college business graduate with a former EMT background holding onto the sliver of a dream in becoming a physician. I was a new hire, a nobody, a stranger that by chance happened to stumble into your ICU. And yet, from the moment I introduced myself at the nurse’s station I was greeted with nothing short of a warm welcome with friendly, cheerful eyes and smiles masked behind face shields and N95s. You took me in from the start as one of your own and accepted me into your home. I went from witnessing this pandemic unfold through the comfort of my own home to working on the frontlines alongside some of healthcare’s finest professionals. I feel extremely honored to have had the privilege to meet all of you and to have had the opportunity to understand to a much greater extent the vital role nurses play in patient care. Although, I am saddened to leave you all, a new chapter in my life opens just as this one closes. As I begin my journey to Medical School, I will cherish the warm, heartfelt memories made with you all here which will forever serve as a reminder of why I chose medicine in the first place. Thank you all for everything you have done for me.
Your Former PCT,
Derrick
