Local News

Home health nurses’ duties more dangerous during pandemic

ELKINS -- Local nurses are being celebrated as part of National Nurses Week, honoring brave individuals who are on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During a 44-year career in the nursing profession, Debra Everheart felt that she had seen it all. That was until last year, when every person in the healthcare field had to change their ways of doing things because of the pandemic.

Everheart doesn't walk the floors of a hospital these days, but is instead in charge of a team of nurses that have faced difficult challenges while dealing with COVID-19.

Everheart, who is the director of Home Plus, sends her nurses to the homes of patients to care for them, rather than having them come to a hospital. Visiting homes can present significant chances of exposure for nurses.

"Our nurses had to pay very particular attention to infection control, to make sure that we don't get (COVID) or give it," Everheart said. "They have to be extremely proactive because we are walking into the homes and we don't know who has been in there or exactly what we are walking in to.

"It's different if you know a person has COVID, then we can dress appropriately with the gowns and all that stuff. But you don't necessarily know when you are going into the homes."

With Everheart's nurses going to different homes day after day, taking every step necessary to avoid exposure is atop the Home Plus nurses' to-do list.

"We have to be very careful and take precautions, so if we are exposed we don't get it or pass it on to any other patients," she said. "We take every precaution imaginable in everything we do."

The team of nurses' diligence and carefulness has paid off, as none of the nurses on staff at Home Plus have been infected with COVID-19 since the pandemic began.

"I'm extremely proud of all our nurses," Everheart said. "During all that time we had some people end up in quarantine when we found out later they were exposed, but no patients caught anything for us, nor did any of our staff get COVID from their exposures. So I know that they were being very, very careful with their infection control. They did not get it and they did not give it."

The home health nurses who work in the field for Home Plus include: Sherry Reed (RN), Ian Wilson (RN), Valerie Everson (RN), Jessica Mallow (RN), Rosanna Williams (RN), Alex Thorne (LPN), April Yancey (RN), Angie Teter (RN), Deb Defibaugh (RN), Krissy Bell (LPN), and Kelly Vild (RN).

Nurses who work in the Home Plus office include: Debra Everhart (RN), Sherry Bartlett (RN), Shane Heckler (LPN) and Paula Kirkpatrick (LPN).

Everhart worked in the field at Home Plus, which also has physical and occupational therapists on staff, from 1993 until 2008, when she took over as director. Prior to 1993 she worked as a pediatric nurse.

Home Plus, which is part of Davis Health System, is currently taking care of 150 patients in Randolph, Tucker, Upshur and Barbour counties.