Even now, just a couple of years removed from the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, it feels to many like a distant memory – surreal even, almost as if it were all a bad dream.
But for many members of one group, at least, it still feels all too real: those frontline caregivers who bore the brunt of it.
That includes the doctors, then nurses, the hospital room service crews, the environmental services specialists and all the others who confronted the pandemic with typical dedication and courage.
It was the nurses of St. Tammany Health System, though, who had the foresight to realize people might soon forget the sacrifices made in 2020 and 2021 – unless, that is, they did something about it.
That brings us to today’s installment in our 70-part series through which we’re using 70 artifacts from our 70-year history to tell the St. Tammany Health System story.
Installment No. 39: A St. Tammany time capsule
Today’s artifact: A nursing time capsule installed behind glass in spring 2021 in the first-floor elevator lobby of the South Tower of St. Tammany Health System’s flagship St. Tammany Parish Hospital.
Why it is significant: Things were done a lot differently 50 years ago. And they will be done a lot differently 50 years from now.
But when the nurses of 2070 reflect on the history of their profession, they won’t have to work hard to find out what things used to be like for today’s nurses.
They’ll just have to pop open the time capsule prepared by the St. Tammany Health System Nursing Department in December 2020 and given pride of place inside a glassed-in enclosure in the hospital’s South Tower shortly before the building’s completion in spring 2021.
“We don’t know what nursing is going to look like in 50 years,” STHS Chief Nursing Officer Kerry Milton said at the time, “but we want to send a message to our future colleagues, and we want to remind them to take care of each other. We particularly hope they, too, will be able to give back to this community the way care was provided in 2020.”
Interestingly, the idea for the time capsule predated the COVID pandemic. Originally, it was intended to acknowledge 2020 as the Year of the Nurse, as designated by the World Health Organization in recognition of the 200th anniversary of the birth of nursing icon Florence Nightingale.
But then the pandemic came. Now, in retrospect, there’s just no way to describe the healthcare landscape of 2020 without including COVID, which, given the sheer number of lives it touched, would become one of the defining healthcare events of our time.
And, so, in addition to such things as an STHS nursing residency lapel pin, a copy of the nursing pay scale from 2020, photos and a letter to the nurses of the future, the capsule also includes such COVID-related items as an N95 mask, a face shield and the like.
There are other things in there, too – but we don’t want to spoil the surprise.
You’ll just have to wait until December 2070 to find out what they are.
Do you have a St. Tammany Parish Hospital story or item to share? We’d love to hear about it! Email us at CommDept@stph.org.
Next week – Installment No. 40: The first family of St. Tammany
Last week – Installment No. 38: A tradition is born