Behind the Scenes of A Covid-19 Quarantine Facility – An Interview with Emily Topalanchik, RN

On today's episode, I interview Emily Topalanchik, a nursing supervisor at a local Covid-19 quarantine facility in Seattle, WA.  Emily has previous experience as an acute care nurse, but when the pandemic hit, she started working in the quarantine facilities (in addition to her full-time job) and has a very behind the scenes look at this side to infection control and prevention of community spread.  

Emily shares with us the day to day of the operations at this facility and how they keep their quarantined individuals safe and cared for. She has learned a lot about her practice as a nurse from this experience and has learned to check her biases and use harm reduction strategies in caring for guests.

Emily also discusses the results of a UW Impact study that shows the REAL benefit to the community, where they predicted that the facilities saved at least 5,000 - 20,000 people from being infected with Covid-19!

If you want to get involved in the community, check out the medical reserve corp.

https://kingcounty.gov/depts/health/emergency-preparedness/reserve-corps/join.aspx

https://kingcounty.gov/depts/community-human-services/COVID/shelter-response.aspx

Thank you so much for being on the show! Go follow Emily @yawar.misky on Instagram.

Stay Safe and Stay Sane,

Nicole