COVID-19 has reconfigured life for the past year and has given new meaning to space, distance and boundaries — necessary adjustments to stop or slow the spread of the virus.
For Danielle Tapia, 29, a registered nurse at University Hospital, the boundaries define the structure of her job. While navigating them, she cares for COVID-19 patients on the progressive care unit (PCU), people who do not require the nearly constant attention of the ICU but for whom the disease is serious enough to require an extended stay at the hospital.
“(The progressive care unit) is kind of that middle ground,” she said. “And that’s why I love it. It is a unit where you get to learn so much.”
Tapia started on the unit in January. In March, she learned the unit would begin taking COVID-19 patients.