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As we do every month, we make it our mission at KX to Put North Dakota First, saying thanks to those who make a positive difference in the community. This particular group of difference-makers has been working long hours, dealing with the unknown, all while trying to stay positive and keep North Dakotans healthy.
We spoke with some of our frontline healthcare professionals about what these now almost two years have been like and just what keeps them going.
“I’ve been a registered nurse for over almost 30 years and I’ve been with [Bismarck Burleigh] Public Health for 21 years,” Bismarck-Burleigh Public Health Nurse Manager Theresa Schmidt said.
Schmidt explained her parents and her inspiring aunt gave her the nudge to nursing and she hasn’t looked back. In that time, Schmidt said there have been a lot of changes in nursing. As far as the patients she sees nowadays, they are taking a bigger responsibility for their own health.
But what she never saw coming was what we are living through.
“I did not ever think that I would be going through a pandemic for almost two years now. And I can definitely say out of my over 30 years in the nursing field, this has definitely been the most challenging,” Schmidt said.
“I was going back between a teacher and a nurse, but I am ever so grateful that I did choose nursing because it is such a rewarding profession to be in,” BBPH Public Service Coordinator Angie Seidel said.
You can hear it in her voice. Seidel, who’s been a nurse for 12 years, loves it. Her passion, like Schmidt’s, is helping her stay positive through this pandemic, in addition to what was coming out around this time last year.
“We are getting more and more people vaccinated, so I think that is going to help as well,” Seidel said.
Not to be underestimated though is another kind of help both nurses say keeps them going.
“I don’t know that anyone of us would have made it through these last 21 months without having support from the community and just knowing that we’re out there to try and do the best we can,” Schmidt said.
Doing the best they can: to get people vaccinated and lower the numbers as quickly as possible. But it’s a team effort in ending this pandemic. As Schmidt said: “We’re all in this together.”