44 THE QUEENS COURIER • MAY 6, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
national nurses week
Photo courtesy of St. Paul’s School of Nursing
Cambria Heights resident talks experience as nurse
practitioner and educator during COVID-19 pandemic
BY JENNA BAGCAL
jbagcal@qns.com
@jenna_bagcal
Ever since she could remember,
Cambria Heights resident Junie White
has wanted to help others and saw herself
as a “people person.”
For the past three years, White — who
started off as a registered nurse in 2006 and
eventually became a nurse practitioner in
2012 — has worked at the St. Paul’s School
of Nursing in Rego Park, as a faculty member
teaching new nurses the ins and outs
of medical, surgical, nursing and clinicals.
But when the pandemic started to rapidly
spread across New York City, White
had to learn how to navigate working during
the “new normal” while simultaneously
teaching young nurses who were getting
ready to enter the workforce.
She also recalled her own experience
contracting COVID-19 in December 2020,
making her fearful of passing the virus
along to her family, especially her grandchildren.
“My major concern was that my children
and grandchildren would be harmed
— that was my greatest fear. Th at’s why I
opened up to my students that once you
choose a path in life and you make it the
path you choose because of what you love,
you have nothing to fear but fear itself,”
White said.
Aft er she recovered, White immediately
returned to work. Th e educator said that
sharing her story with students helped to
reassure them that they were equipped
with the skills to work through COVID-
19.
“Th is is why I reassure them: because
I have been there,” White said. “You are
going to be faced with challenges like this.
We don’t know if we might not face something
else like COVID-19 or even worse.
But because you are a nurse and you are
trained as a nurse, these are some of the
things that you can cloud your mind with.
Sometimes help doesn’t mean you’re going
there to give patients an injection or hang
an IV. Sometimes help means that you’re
going to hold their hands and reassure
them that this is what we’re going to do and
this will help.”
Over the past year, White has learned
that knowledge is one of the best tools to
have, whether she’s speaking to her students
or patients. She’s interacted with and
observed countless individuals who lived
in fear during the pandemic and credited
some of the fear to a lack of education.
“As healthcare providers, we can show
some empathy and care for these people
who are concerned about what is going
to happen to them,” she said. “What we
can do is educate them on how they can
take care of themselves and how to protect
themselves and their family.”
In addition to teaching and working as
a nurse practitioner, White began volunteering
during the weekends. During the
height of the pandemic, she heard that
Governor Cuomo was calling on retired
nurses and other volunteers to work at
makeshift clinics in underserved areas.
“Th ey sent information, so I fi lled out
the form and said I’ll volunteer for a day
and that’s when I got started,” White said.
Her intention was to volunteer for one
day but she realized that she could continue
her full-time job while volunteering
on the weekends. Many of the patients she
serves at these clinics are elderly, homeless,
HIV/AIDS-positive or battle substance
abuse.
White said that she does not see herself
as a “health care hero” or “inspiration,” but
rather as a person who is willing to help
those in need.
“I’m a person who will help in a time
of need as much as I can within my capacity.
It doesn’t matter who or where or what
— as long as is within my capacity to help,
I can help.”
In her spare time, White cares for her
grandchildren and goes to church, where
she and a team work to educate the community
about health care.
“I found a little team at church where I
do annual health fair. We invite the community
to come in and we give them
health care education,” she said. “I’m big
on education because I think a lot the illness
in society is because people are not
educated enough on how their body works
and what to do. Sometimes on the primary
level you can prevent a lot of illness just
through education.”
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