20-year-old Jack Green believes he had COVID-19 before most people even knew what coronavirus was. Green works as an EMT for Grantley, West York, and New Freedom. Now he's a nursing student at York College of Pennsylvania.
"I came home with a fever, cough. I didn't know what it was really... went and got tested. Everything came back negative (for) flu, everything. So, at the time they didn't have a COVID test. So, they were like, 'you'll be fine. everything will be okay. We'll figure it out," said Green. But, a week later Green said his symptoms were still present. He believes he contracted COVID while treating patients.
"With the line of work I do, at the time we were seeing it and not knowing it yet," said Green.
Green's experience only hardened his resolve to help people recovering with COVID-19. As a junior nursing student, however, he recognizes it's 'scary to think' about the pandemic and how it may still be a reality by the time he graduates.
"Personal experience-wise, I've seen the way it hospitalizes people. The way it can make people sick. The way it effects everybody differently, which is what made it so scary when it started and even still," he said.
Professors at York College of Pennsylvania are working to shape their curriculum to help students step into the throes of the pandemic. They said many of their students are already working within healthcare systems or as EMT's.
"They know they are the next generation of folks that will be providing care," said York College of Pennsylvania's Carrie Puchino who also worked as a critical care nurse. She noted conditions for healthcare workers right now are not 'ideal' with stress and long hours. She teaches her students to prioritize their mental health along with their patients.
"When we talk about self care you need to take that seriously," she said.
York College of Pennsylvania's Stacy Lutter called this pandemic "the greatest challenge I've faced as an educator for sure."
She said there are multiple things to consider when preparing students for COVID-19. She said the college is working to schedule more simulations and clinical visits. She is also working to ensure all 300 nursing students at the college are fit tested for a N-95 mask.
"In the past students were discouraged for treating COVID patients. But now they can be on any unit as patients can be on any unit," Lutter said.