Wake Forest Athletics
Former Field Hockey Standout Meghan Murphy Battling on Frontlines of COVID-19
5/5/2020 10:05:00 AM | Field Hockey
It gets louder every night, as the city sings in unison at 7 p.m., banging on kitchen pans, while cheering and clapping for health care workers working physically and mentally exhaustive shifts in the epicenter of a global pandemic.
Former Wake Forest field hockey player Meghan Murphy is often walking either to or from NYU Langone Medical Center, where she works in a COVID-positive unit as she hears the city sing their appreciation.
"Every night at 7 p.m., people come out to their balconies and open their windows," Murphy said. "They play Frank Sinatra's New York, New York. It's their way of saying thank you.
"Every night it seems it gets louder and louder. It's a great feeling to hear these people and then go into work coming off that. It's indescribable."
Murphy lives in Midtown New York City, where the Coronavirus pandemic has drastically altered life. With total infections in the United States nearing a million, there have been more than 45,000 fatalities, with more than 14,000 coming from New York City.
"Pretty much all the city is under quarantine," she said. "People are only allowed out to run essential errands. Our governor just issued a statement that if we are out running essential errands, we have to wear a facemask. We do have police and national guard enforcing this. It's been crazy.
"I live on one of the busiest streets in New York, and when I walk to work there's not a single car out on the road."
She shares an apartment with another nurse, who works in a COVID-positive unit at another hospital. They both have chosen, because of their constant contact with the virus, to self-quarantine. Murphy's specialty is acute neuroscience, with a focus on neurology and epilepsy. In mid-March, her unit was transformed to assist with Coronavirus patients.
"Half ICU, half acute care," Murphy said. "We're being paired with ICU nurses and being ICU skill-trained, so we can care for these patients. They are just getting sicker.
"We started to hear about the cases that were coming into the hospitals in New York City. We have huddles every morning, where we debrief on the admissions coming in and what's going on. When we got our first positive patient, we went through the protocols. We met with infection control. When we got our first COVID-positive patient, that's when things picked up pretty quickly."
Murphy was originally a double major at Wake, going for health and exercise science in addition to communications. She graduated at the end of 2017 with a degree in health and exercise science and then attained a postgraduate degree from Villanova in 2018. She was hired at NYU in 2019, and then was brought on full time in January this year, before getting trained in a completely different specialty because of the pandemic. She used to work three-to-four 13-hour shifts a week.
"Because we don't have enough nurses in New York City, a lot of us are picking up overtime," she said. "We're working four-to-five shifts a week, up to 14 hours at a time, based on the type of care patients need."
Despite putting in 60-70 hours a week, Murphy still often leaves feeling she should do more.
"It's a super conflicting feeling," she said. "With the virus and the research we don't have on it, it's difficult leaving the hospital feeling like you've done your part caring for a patient, because it's so unpredictable. There are times I find myself not wanting to leave my shift, because I don't want to leave my patients. I know when I come back the next day, I have no idea what I'm going to walk into.
"There's something new every single day, and the patients deteriorate so quickly. It makes you not want to leave their side."
While the rest of the country tries to do their best to flatten the curve, some of the hardest-hit areas have had to deal with shortages of personal protective equipment like gowns and masks in the hospitals.
"At Langone, we're trying to conserve our protective equipment," Murphy said. "In a normal shift, before COVID, I would check in on every patient every hour during my shift. Now, because we're in a shortage of gowns and masks, we're trying to cluster our care. Our patients are calling into us on our shift when they need something. We're trying to do less trips into the room, to save equipment."
The final moments with patients have had a profound impact on Meghan, as she has assisted them in saying their final goodbyes to loved ones.
"It's been very difficult to be at the bedside of a patient where you've spoken with the team and you know this patient is going to pass," she said. "Having to hold their cellphone up with FaceTime on so that they can say goodbye to their family members. Then when they do pass, the family does come to the hospital. But because we're limiting visitors, only two visitors are allowed to see their family member. We give them protective equipment and give them time with their loved one.
"The toughest part is understanding how quickly this virus escalates, and their health can deteriorate so quickly. I never thought I would see so many patients pass. That's been the hardest part, to feel like we're doing everything to care for these patients and it's not enough."
Murphy played 64 games in her Wake Forest field hockey career for coach Jen Averill. She sees some similarities in what she's doing at Langone to her time in Winston-Salem.
"That's a huge team environment, having played four-and-a-half years there. Here it's once again being on a team," Murphy said. "For me, it's been really cool to see how communication is crucial, just the same as it was at Wake. We want to learn the skills and tricks to care for these patients. We're putting in the extra time to hone these skills to work together best.
"It's drawing back on those principles and fundamentals from playing on a team at Wake."
It's no surprise that Murphy connects often with Averill and her former Demon Deacon teammates.
"We were a very close knit team, and we still continue on with these friendships after we've graduated," she said. "It's great to hear from them. We are in quarantine. As nurses, we choose to self isolate. We don't run these essential errands, because we are exposed every single day. I don't get to be quarantined with my family or friends.
"So getting to FaceTime my old teammates and keep in touch with my coaches brings an overwhelming feeling of support. It makes me miss them that much more."
The key to defeating the virus in the long run is to continue to practice social distancing, Murphy said.
"The longer we social distance, the less overwhelmed the hospitals will be, which will give us a chance to treat these patients and discharge them," she said. "We were going through patients. It was organized chaos. The social distancing has helped. We're flattening the curve, and we're able to treat and discharge patients."
Averill is impressed with Murphy's fortitude in the face of these circumstances.
"There's a lot of independent growth that is happening because of this isolation," Averill said. "What are some things about yourself that need to be enhanced and leveled-up. Where is that intrinsic growth? Meghan had that from the get-go.
"When she came in as a freshman, she was a confident, strong opinionated, full-of-energy type of kid. To hear about her ability to manage herself and put herself in those positions — she was built to do stuff like that."
Her building at Langone — all 18 floors — have now been transformed into COVID units and the nurses have been redeployed to help patients fighting the virus. Murphy is amazed at the resolve and dedication from travel nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and residents from all departments.
"I've never seen a stronger sense of community and selflessness," she said. "We have nurses from different ages, backgrounds, experiences and specialities working together as one team.
"We don't really know when we're going to be back to normal, or what that version of normal looks like, but it's nice to have those things to look forward to."
