ROBBINSDALE, Minn. — There are many ways to describe the situations that Lindsey Olhert and Morgan Zender are in.
"I've kind of learned to swim, sunk a little bit at first but learned to swim," Ohlert said with a laugh.
"Having to learn how to run before we crawl was definitely a big challenge for us to be facing," Zender said.
Olhert and Zender are relatively new Registered Nurses at North Memorial Health. Both of them having started in September of 2020, they were both thrown into the deep end of the COVID-19 pandemic this past September.
They didn't specifically ask for the COVID unit, but that's where they ended up, with no regrets.
"That's the position they offered me, but I would have preferred to be on that unit," Ohlert said. "When COVID first broke out, I felt a little helpless, being at home. I still had a semester left of nursing school and I was helpless sitting there watching the news."
"It was definitely unexpected, to graduate and think it would be this smooth transition to the nursing field, and I can kinda know what to expect from other graduates," Zender said. "And then just having our world turn upside down by the pandemic."
The National Library of Medicine calls this class of nurses who graduated during the pandemic, "Coronials."
And as many of us outsiders can only imagine, the job has been quite intense for months.
"With COVID on the unit, your brain just feels like it's being pulled 100 different ways at a time," Zender said.
The phrase, "new normal," has become overused. However, for Olhert and Zender, this isn't a new normal. It's the only version of their careers they've known.
"This is what I know," Ohlert said. "I never experienced the side of nursing that was before COVID, so I've just learned to run with it, and now I feel like I've become good at it, so it's my normal."
And of all the reasons a giving person would choose a job like nursing, the roles they play outside of being a nurse are more important now, than ever.
"I'm what the patients see," Ohlert said. "I'm their human interaction for the day, so I'm able to provide them a lot of human touch and compassion and everything like that."
As for mental health, both nurses said they've relied heavily on family and friends for their support system.
"Definitely about a month ago, when things were really spiking, it was hard with mental health," Zender said. "I honestly have cried at work before. It's been horrible."
"It's hard when you leave a shift and it feels like you haven't done enough," she continued. "But I'm lucky enough to have a support system at work and at home to get through it all."
"Not for one second have I thought I chose the wrong career," Ohlert added. "Because even though there are days I am running around and super busy and stressful, when you get the human interaction and all the support you're able to provide with your patients, that just makes it all worth it."
North Memorial Health says along with Ohlert and Zender, five other new graduate nurses started working there in 2020.