In the Newsletter: Teacher Appreciation Week, Something fun for students, Coronavirus testing, OHSU/ OHA partnership, and more

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In this Newsletter

We Will Get Through This Together (#We will get through this together)

Teacher Appreciation Week Tik Tok Video (yep) (#Teacher Appreciation Week)

Something Fun for Students (#Kids Secretary of State Essay Contest)

Coronavirus Testing (#New Guidance on Coronavirus Testing)

A Safe & Strong Oregon (#A Safe & Strong Oregon)

What is Contact Tracing (#What is Contact Tracing)

OHSU/OHA Partnership (#OHSU/OHA Partnership)

Oregon Health Authority Updates (#OHA Update)

A Message From a Formal President (#A message from a past President)

We will get through this together

As a State Representative, I'm closely monitoring the immense impact COVID-19 is having on our state, our communities, and our economy. My view of this crisis is not just from my role as a legislator working to address policy that helps, but also as a nurse practitioner throughout our community. Every day I see the health care implications up close and personal as I serve members of our community who are homebound and unable to be treated in a traditional clinic setting. My patients range in age from their 20s to over 100, with conditions that include developmental disabilities, dementia, and other chronic conditions. I visit them in their homes and grow close to them and their families.

In the 20 years I have served as a nurse, I have never gone this long without caring for my patients in person. Like many medical providers across Oregon, my employer, Housecall Providers, temporarily suspended in-person visits and the acceptance of new patients. We did not have enough personal protective equipment to protect patients, staff, and caregivers. The need to minimize outside visitors is balanced with the need to manage their chronic health conditions. We have instead practiced telemedicine and, if urgently necessary, we make home visits using our limited personal protective equipment.

Last week, I volunteered to train for, and offer, the COVID-19 test for our homebound patients. So, for the first time in weeks, I was able to care for a patient up close again. I missed them, and longed to help their family members. This particular patient has dementia, and was happy to see me. His daughter was being pushed to the limit, stressed by the results of her own coronavirus test and the pressures of caring for her father. I was excited to see and care for him - though the way we had to interact changed dramatically since COVID-19. Between us was a face shield and an N95 mask. I could touch him, but only with gloves and gown on. I couldn’t help but think of the other kind of care we were missing - the ability to hug or touch someone’s arm and just sit with each other and laugh. Normally, I would have stayed longer to talk through challenges and fears, a critical part of my work, but for their safety, I left quickly.

Instead, I put my gown and gloves in a bag to be thrown away immediately. I disinfected my face shield to be worn the next time I collect a sample from a patient for a COVID test. It was an entirely different patient care experience than I have ever encountered. I put my N95 mask in a brown paper bag, so I could use it again, and thought about the thousands of lives lost over the past month, and the frontline health care workers who are wearing the same mask all day. I thought of their bravery and the deep pain they must be in.

As healthcare clinicians, our priority is always to provide patient-centered medical care. Whether it’s treating a cancer diagnosis, end stage kidney disease, a broken heart, or end-stage dementia, clinicians always lead with compassion, stay rooted in evidence-based medicine, and stay focused on the goals of care. Every day, we must decide between the benefits and risks of a hospital admission and the benefits and risk of treating the symptoms at home. These decisions are some of the most difficult a family can make, and with the spread of the coronavirus, they are even more complex and difficult.

In these unprecedented times, my job as a primary and palliative outpatient care clinician is to do what I’ve always done: treat my patients, work with families, help them make scary decisions based on evidence and science and, most of all, do what is right for them.

I'm proud that our patients are safe and we are delivering the care they need. I look forward to the day when I can see all of my patients in-person again without so many barriers between us. I remain hopeful that I will soon get to laugh and cry with them while holding their hand without gloves or a mask.

As an Oregonian, a nurse, and a State Representative, I'm thankful to all those who continue to make sacrifices during this crisis to ensure that our health care workers have the personal protective equipment they need.

I know those sacrifices have been great. I see them in families who cannot visit their loved ones, and among small business owners, worried they might close forever. Every day, I am listening and learning from Oregonians who are struggling; their sacrifices are saving lives and protecting health workers. We must make sure that as we make plans to reopen Oregon people come out of this crisis and thrive.

Teacher Appreciation Week

Teachers change the lives of millions of children every day. With the abrupt end to the physical school year, our teachers have gone above and beyond to continue education with virtual classrooms and learning at-home lessons. All to ensure every student has the tools they need to reach their full potential. Their immense work and impact moves me beyond words, so I did a Tik Tok video to show my appreciation and, hopefully, make them smile. (yes, you can definitely laugh at me too!)
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It’s easy for you to #ThankATeacher too with resources from the national PTA website ([link removed]) .

Kids Secretary of State Essay Contest
Are your students looking for something to do while at home? Oregon's Blue Book ([link removed]) is our official state almanac, published biennially for more than 100 years. Next year's book will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the opening of Oregon's first state park and Secretary of State Bev Clarno is asking students in elementary and middle school to submit essays and illustrations answering this question: "What is your favorite state park and why?" Submissions are due October 22 and you can find out more about the contest here ([link removed]) .

New Guidance On Coronavirus Testing
Governor Brown announced new plans for COVID-19 testing and contact tracing, two essential aspects to safely reopen Oregon. The state has been working towards administering 15,000 tests per week and has recently expanded guidance on who can be tested. In an ideal world, every individual in the state could be tested, but testing capacity has been limited nationwide. Oregon’s plan expands our testing criteria to include every Oregonian who is symptomatic (within 48-72 hours) as well as asymptomatic individuals in group living situations where COVID-19 is suspected. More details on testing, including testing information by region, is available here ([link removed]) .

A Safe & Strong Oregon

Not everyone has had the resources or information they need to stay home and stay healthy.
Oregon Health Authority alongside Governor Brown launched a new phase of the COVID-19 outreach campaign focusing on communities most impacted by health disparities. Visit SafeStrongOregon.org ([link removed]) to find resources and information in 12 languages so all of can stay safe and strong.

What Is Contact Tracing?

The goal of contact tracing is to identify who has coronavirus and find out who else may have been exposed through contact with those people. They can then be assessed and quarantined if necessary. Local public health authorities did this work aggressively when coronavirus first popped up in Oregon, but didn’t have the resources to quickly follow up with every case, and public health officials prioritized their attention on managing the response to the outbreak. Now, with the pandemic leveling off, it’s time to get back to this critical work more comprehensively.
The Oregon Health Aut ([link removed]) hority
([link removed]) is heavily ramping up this work by hiring and training more contact tracers, with the goal to have 600 contact tracers ready to go statewide by mid-May. The sooner we can improve our ability to do contact tracing, the sooner we will have a better ability to stop the spread and protect ourselves. You can watch Dr. Cieslak ([link removed]) , the Medical Director of the Acute and
Communicable Disease section of the Oregon Health Authority, explain contact tracing in more detail.

OHSU/Oregon Health Authority partnership

OHSU will partner with the State of Oregon, the Oregon Health Authority, and the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health on a plan to help get Oregon back to our “new normal” while paying close attention to the risk of future COVID-19 outbreaks.

This “Key to Oregon ([link removed]) ” study will allow us to better understand where the disease is located, how common it is, and how it might be transmitted across the state. The data that is collected in real time will provide useful information to help get people back to school more safely and back to work faster. A press release with additional details can be found here ([link removed]) .

The program is seeking to enroll 100,000 Oregonians across the state who, if selected to participate, will receive an invitation starting the week of May 11; participation is completely voluntary. Please consider participating should you receive an invitation in the mail.

It is important to note this study will not delay decisions about reopening but rather, it will give the state and local communities valuable information to keep Oregonians as safe as possible as decisions are made. It will provide critical baseline data about the virus in Oregon and how it behaves to help us make informed, data-driven decisions to manage through this pandemic until we have a vaccine.

A Message From A Former President

Former President George W. Bush released a message to the American people amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a good reminder that we are all in this together. You can watch it here ([link removed]) .

Oregon Health Authority Updates

If you are someone who wants to check on the daily numbers and statistics or follow how the state is planning to reopen, you can find more information here ([link removed]) .

Please email me (http:// [email protected]) if you have specific concerns. Our office is doing everything we can to help and protect all Oregonians.

To read past newsletters, you can go here ([link removed]) .

For up-to-date information, please check this link ([link removed]) to the Oregon Health Authority or Governor Brown’s COVID-19 Resource page ([link removed]) .

Thank you for reading! We will get through this together.

Sincerely,
Rachel Prusak

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Rachel for State Representative . 1980 willamette falls drive . Suite #120 - PMB#135 . West Linn, Or 97068 . USA

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