‘It gives them that little bit of normalcy’: How one MGH staff member is helping to keep her colleagues safe during the pandemic

Registered nurse Tracey Robbins remembers the challenges of the SARS epidemic. So when the COVID-19 pandemic began last spring, she was ready to go beyond the call of duty — even it meant picking up a tape measure and a few rolls of green painter’s tape.

“I knew our Infection Prevention and Control [IPAC] team had a lot on their plate,” says Tracey, a clinical supervisor in Michael Garron Hospital’s (MGH) General Internal Medicine unit. “I reached out to them last spring asking how I could help. That’s when Dr. Jeff Powis, our medical director of infection control, suggested I could assist with auditing the hospital’s shared spaces.”

For the next few months, Tracey carved time out of her busy role to conduct assessments of MGH’s staff break rooms, waiting areas and other communal spaces.

Working with leaders in different units, she measured rooms, rearranged furniture and applied large checkmarks using painter’s tape on hospital walls and floors. She also produced signage indicating each area’s capacity and reinforcing MGH’s infection prevention and control policies.

This ensured patients, staff and physicians using MGH’s congregate spaces could safely maintain two metres of distance from one another.

The process proved particularly valuable in MGH’s staff common areas, which typically serve as a respite for MGH’s workforce. With Tracey’s help, staff and physicians were able to identify where in these spaces they could safely remove their masks while having lunch with a colleague.

“It gives them that little bit of normalcy,” says Tracey. “They can relax while still being sure they’re maintaining that distance.”

Although audits of large congregate settings at MGH, including the main cafeteria, had already been conducted by the time Tracey reached out to MGH’s IPAC team, her assistance proved integral in ensuring more than 50 other common areas in the hospital were properly assessed for safety.

“Protecting our patients, staff and physicians has been the IPAC team’s priority throughout the pandemic,” says Wayne Lee, IPAC manager. “We want them to know that MGH is a safe place to be. That includes our waiting areas and, for our workforce, break and meeting rooms. We thank Tracey for volunteering to support MGH in this area, ensuring everyone at our hospital can feel at ease in these communal settings.”

Tracey has since returned a number of times to the spaces she has audited to ensure the safety measures are being maintained.

“I think our staff have really come together in unexpected ways during the pandemic to cover all the bases from a safety perspective,” she says. “It feels really good to have been a part of this work. I hope it eases anxieties and gives our patients, staff and physicians one less thing to worry about.”