Kimberly Townes Soden

Professional Title: Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist, MSN

Class Year: 1999

Major: Nursing

Location: Raleigh, N.C.

Medical Experience: 21 years

Please share your experience working with patients diagnosed with COVID-19

Every breath, every beat, every second (AANA), I am there! I am a CRNA, highly educated, and trained to administer anesthesia across all settings. Including hospitals, outpatient centers, and surgical teams in the service, we are the primary providers of anesthesia in rural underserved areas. I am currently practicing in a hospital setting in Raleigh, NC. In preparation for the COVID-19 surge, our hospital created a temporary Specialty Respiratory ICU (SRICU). As you can imagine, this pandemic has created a tremendous amount of anxiety, stress, fear, financial constraints, physical and mental exhaustion.

Each shift, I’m contemplating whether or not to go in. Do I risk exposing my family or myself to the virus?  Often feeling guilty because I question my loyalty to my family, colleagues, and my patients. I have dealt with patient mortality, but never thought I would be dealing with facing my own while taking care of someone else. Yet, I am not deterred. I still show up to work and provide safe anesthesia and excellent care to my patients. My day begins with a screening for symptoms and temperature check upon entering the hospital. In the operating room when delivering anesthesia, we are at high risk of being exposed because the virus can be aerosolized (airborne particles) as anesthetists work very close to the airway and stay with the patient the entire time during the case.

In effort to minimize our exposure, we have taken numerous steps. For example, we are only doing cases that have been deemed emergent or urgent. We are also using a glide scope which is a piece of equipment that is kind of like a camera to assist us in visualizing the airway when placing an Endo tracheal tube. Our hospital has collaborated with our anesthesia department to leverage our expertise in airway management, assessment skills, ventilatory support, and invasive line placement for COVID-19 patients in SRICU. We have restructured our staffing to have a COVID-19 response team which is available 24 hours a day and seven days a week.  

When we are called to intubate or be on standby for prone positioning, we are assisted with donning, and doffing our PPE by the ICU nurses. As special precautions must be taken, this shows the great teamwork that is needed and appreciated during these times to keep staff safe! In preparation for COVID-19, our anesthesia team also created a supplies cart that is housed in the SRICU. Our PAPRS (Powered Air Purifying Respirator), isolation gowns, surgical shoe covers, gloves, neck coverings, and shields are also readily available.  

I am fortunate to be at a facility that has adequate PPE, and I’m proud to be a member of our professional organization, the American Association of Nurse Anesthetist (AANA), as they have lobbied to congress on our behalf to be sure we are protected, utilized to our full scope of practice during this crisis, lobbying for hazardous pay, and loans for anesthetist who run their own companies. Once my shift ends, I am physically drained, my face is irritated from wearing PPE for hours, but I remain grateful that I made it through another day, that I’m still employed and most of all thankful that my family circle hadn’t been broken!

What advice would you give to people during this pandemic?

This pandemic has revealed many systematic failures of one of the greatest countries in the world the United States. It has highlighted the importance of having qualified, competent, responsible, organized, and empathetic leadership at the government level. We can no longer ignore the inequalities that still exist like access to quality healthcare, food insecurity, income disparities, affordable housing, and criminal justice reform.

While the virus doesn’t discriminate based on race, black seems to be the Color of COVID. African Americans are dying at disproportionately high rates. I would like to encourage everyone to follow the guidelines of the CDC by staying home, vigilantly handwashing, wearing masks, and practicing social distancing. Take care of yourself physically and mentally.

Above all, I urge you to take this seriously. I would also encourage everyone to call their representatives to demand more access to testing in underserved areas, and please vote in November! We owe it to ourselves, family, and friends.

While these are unprecedented times, all is not lost. We must not be dismayed. COVID-19 has shown how we can come together even as we social distance to support those in need. As one of the most advanced countries in the world, we have the means and people with ingenuity to come out of this pandemic better than before. My Alma Mater, North Carolina A&T is one place that I know will graduate top African Americans that will go out into the world and be the change because that’s what Aggies DO!