Brian Wilson of Nebraska Methodist Hospital demonstrates the necessity to adapt as a nurse.
Wilson — an RN in the progressive care unit — showed his aptitude a little more than a year into his career, receiving a national DAISY Award for extraordinary nursing care in November of 2019.
The prestigious award, he said, was a confidence booster. COVID in 2020 proved to be a confidence shaker.
Wilson’s unit on the sixth floor of the Methodist north tower became the closed COVID unit.
“I feel bad for the nurses starting off last year,” said Wilson. “Just before COVID, we had a low patient census and there was talk of furloughing staff. We had already stopped all elective surgeries. Then the pandemic hit and four-plus shifts of 12 hours became standard on Six North. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) was recommending changes all the time.”
“The restriction of family members (from spending time with loved ones) was very difficult,” he said. “In one weekend, we had two patients placed on comfort care because of COVID ... and were in their rooms constantly for the families.”
Both patients were lost to the virus that weekend and more were to come.
Wilson’s path to nursing started as a junior in high school with an anatomy and physiology class at Millard South.
“Around that time, my grandfather had been diagnosed with cancer and was treated by Dr. (Yungpo B.) Su and Dr. (Randall) Duckert and both of them were very helpful at Methodist.”
Wilson went to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to study biomedical engineering but before long decided his destiny was in nursing. He enrolled at Nebraska Methodist College and started in the progressive care unit at Methodist Hospital in October of 2017. The PCU is the step-down unit from the ICU, for patients still acutely ill but not ready for a lesser level of care.
The demands of the coronavirus brought new skills.
“Cross-training was a constant. We were picking up new things all the time,” he said.
Techniques like proning to ease breathing initially were novel but soon became an important standard practice.
“Today all of us are prepared to learn on the fly.”
