Page 35 - Healthcare News Sept.-Oct. 2020

HEALTHCARE HEROES OF WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
Maggie Eboso’s work during the pandemic took her to every corner of Mercy Medical Center — and far beyond its walls.
good stewards of that equipment, but also
to help them separate fact from conjecture
or assumption on what equipment was needed and, above all, how to keep themselves and their families safe from infection.
“The biggest thing that we saw with this whole thing was the fear,” she explained. “We were all thinking, ‘yes, we’ll take care of you, and we’ll treat you,’ but at the end of the day, we all had families and children that we were going home to. So while, yes, we all signed up for this, and this is what we do, people were still afraid — they wanted assurances that they could do their jobs and still go home and not bring this back to their families.”
mask,’ they’d see people on TV wearing haz-mat suits, and they would ask, ‘why are they wearing haz-mat suits, and all you’re giving us is a mask?’ she recalled, adding that was this was just one of many “clashes and contradictions,” as she called them, that had to be dealt with.
While taking on this role of educator within the medical center, she also carried it out within the community as well, including several visits to the correctional facility in Ludlow, where she provided lessons in everything from how gloves provide a false sense of security — that’s why hand washing is still very important — to how to don and doff PPE.
Today, one of her concerns involves battling complacency and what she and many others are now calling “battle fatigue” — both inside the medical center and within the larger community.
She used the nurses’ lounges at Mercy as an example. “People are tired ... people want to celebrate a birthday with a cake or share a pizza; they want to eat lunch with their friends,” she explained, adding that it’s part of her job to keep these employees diligent — and safe — by keeping the numbers down in those lounges and making sure there is adequate social distancing.
She joked that people are wary of even thinking about letting their guard down because, if and when they do, “Maggie will be walking in the door at just that moment.”
That mindset, real or not, is just one of many ways of explaining why she has become a Healthcare Hero during this very challenging year.n
you’re writing policies and going out in front
of your staff to educate them on the new and updated information — and that was happening sometimes several times a week.”
One of her primary roles focused on educating staff on how to use PPE and become
And the onslaught of information coming from the media certainly
didn’t help, she went on, because this information was often contradicting what she and others were telling staff members.
“When we told them, ‘all you need is a regular
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Mercy Medical Center is proud to recognize this
year’s Healthcare Heroes and their commitment
to the community.
We are especially proud to congratulate our healthcare hero Magdalene Eboso, RN, MSN, MBA, CIC, Infection Control and Prevention Coordinator.
Thank you for your contributions to our ministry and your dedication to our Mission!
271 Carew Street, Springfield, MA 01104 • 413-748-9000
OCTOBER 2020 A23
MAGGIE EBOSO
Staff Photo