MONROE – For Aida Calderon, working as a nurse at Parker at Monroe has been her dream career.
Yet, it has not always been easy. She will not soon forget the struggles over the past year, as the entire nursing team spent their days ensuring the elders were always safe and well cared for, despite the COVID-19pandemic.
“We are with them all the time, speaking with them, holding their hands and helping them understand all the ways we were taking care of them,” Calderon said. “We are there for them, night after night, week after week. The elders know the nurses are there to safeguard their health and that we would do anything for them.”
For Calderon, it is all part of the job. Before March 2020, she could never fathom providing extended care during a pandemic, with PPE and other strict protocols, but says these were many of the brightest, challenging and satisfying moments of her career, to date.
National Nurses Week, which runs through Florence Nightingale’s birthday on May 12, has been the perfect time to celebrate Calderon and all the other “Parker Nightingales” who have made such an enormous difference on so many lives over the past year.
“There’s no doubt: our nurses are the heart and soul of Parker’s caring community,” Parker President and CEO Roberto Muñiz said. “National Nurses Week is the ideal time to salute their compassionate and ever-present dedication, especially during this lingering pandemic in which they have been called upon to do so much.”
- This article was submitted by Jaffe Communications on behalf of Parker.