Harbor Healthcare honors nurses and staff after long year

National Nursing Home Appreciation Week means a little more this year for the nurses and staff at Harbor Healthcare in Lewes. 

After a tough year that saw about 40 residents die from the COVID-19 virus, Administrator Sue Shevlin said her team needs to hear just how thankful the community is for their hard work and dedication.

“The next time you see a nurse, an aide, a dietary worker, please say thank you,” Shevlin said. “The country is feeling anxiety and depression related to COVID, but I think this has been even more difficult for these staff members. They’re mothers, fathers; they’re people who have children at home. And they were still coming in and doing their job, picking up extra shifts when other staff members were sick or when people decided they couldn’t work in this environment due to the traumatic stress. I just don’t think they hear ‘thank you’ enough.”

Harbor Healthcare employs about 170 people among its nursing, housekeeping and dietary departments. They care for nearly 180 residents.

Tonya Burton, administrator in training, said the long-term care setting means staff members forge bonds with residents. When visitation was limited, it was staff who interacted with residents and held iPads for family to see their loved ones.

“In a nursing home, it’s more like a family,” she said. “Watching a resident pass away hurts. It’s like losing a family member. I don’t know if everybody realizes that. They grieve just like they were a family member.”

Much like the rest of the country, Harbor Healthcare was scrambling early last year to figure out how to prepare for COVID-19 when it arrived in Delaware. Shevlin said they quickly got emergency operations plans in place and worked to collect as much PPE as possible.

“Then we had to help the staff understand what we may or may not be dealing with and how important infection-control measures were,” Shevlin said.

At a facility like Harbor Healthcare, Shevlin said it only takes one positive test to enter outbreak status. At the height of the pandemic, she said, staff was tested twice a week. Even today, with vaccinations readily available, Harbor Healthcare is testing once a week.

Throughout the last year, she said, her staff has risen to the occasion to provide the best possible care in an extremely difficult and stressful environment.

“The bottom line is that people who work in the nursing home industry absolutely do not do it for the pay,” she said. “Truly, the nurses and workers are all in this field because it’s a calling. You have to have an intrinsic value that you want to be helpful to others.”

To mark National Nursing Home Appreciation Week May 9-15, Shevlin said Harbor Healthcare will do something every day to celebrate staff and thank them for what they’ve done.