Former Trojan athlete on COVID-19 front lines

<p>Kylie Falcone had been working as a student nursing assistant at St. Francis Hospital for just a few months before the coronavirus outbreak hit in March and the floor she was working on was designated as a COVID-19 ward.</p><p>The Center Grove graduate, who is now getting set to enter her senior year at the University of Indianapolis, didn’t hesitate when asked to take on the new responsibility despite all of the uncertainty surrounding the virus.</p><p>“One day I just came into work and they asked if I had wanted to volunteer to go over to the COVID floors and work there,” Falcone said. “I kind of just thought, I’m low risk and I really want to help some people if I can.”</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]<p>Falcone has long been used to staring risk in the face. As a Trojan senior, she finished third in the state in the pole vault, an event she now competes in at UIndy.</p><p>When she checks in for her weekly shift at St. Francis, though, she and the other medical personnel on the floor are facing an entirely different type of pressure.</p><p>Megan Wolfe, who oversees Falcone as the unit manager for Medical 4 South, says that the pressure has lessened somewhat over time but was something everyone felt at the outset.</p><p>“I think it was more the fear with it being so new that was a stress to everyone, including Kylie, just because you didn’t know what every day was going to bring,” Wolfe said. “The longer we’ve been doing it, the more comfortable people have become. You can see the morale improve, the more positive people have been.”</p><p>Falcone’s duties include answering the patients’ call lights and providing them whatever they might need. She checks vital signs, gives bed baths and helps patients get to the bathroom as needed.</p><p>When her shift ends, Falcone is taking every precaution she can — immediately putting everything in the laundry and taking a shower. Seeing up close and personal how COVID-19 has affected people has given her a greater appreciation for just how serious this pandemic is.</p><p>“At first, I think when this whole thing kind of came out, it was like, ‘Well, how serious is it?’ or ‘Where is it, what do we know about it?’” Falcone said. “But when I did go to work, the first time I was on one of the COVID floors, it totally changed my perspective. Patients would call me in just to talk to me and just say, ‘I’m scared,’ and that would kind of just be my job for that 20 minutes, just talking to them and making sure they feel okay and just kind of reassure them. It was really hard, because no one knew anything, and I totally see why people are scared, especially those high-risk patients.”</p><p>Perhaps the biggest adjustment for Falcone when she started working on the COVID ward was the extra equipment she’s had to wear. She heads into each shift outfitted with an N95 mask, a face shield, two pairs of gloves, a hairnet and a gown over her scrubs.</p><p>Wolfe believes that the pandemic has forced Falcone and other nursing students to grow up professionally a little bit faster than they might otherwise have. She notes that a premium has been put on communicating with patients and making them feel comfortable, since visitors are not allowed at this time.</p><p>Falcone’s personality makes her well suited to deal with that.</p><p>“Patients love her,” Wolfe said. “She’s very sweet, very caring to them, and that’s a huge asset on this floor, especially in stressful times with the COVID.”</p><p>Though the pandemic-related shutdown prevented her from doing any actual vaulting for a little while this spring, Falcone — whose collegiate career high is 12 feet, 1/2 inch — still managed to keep herself in shape, and she has recently been able to start practicing again with her club in Greenfield. Because her junior outdoor season was cancelled, Falcone has a fifth year of track and field eligibility now available to her, and she’s strongly considering using it to earn a master’s and work toward becoming a nurse practitioner. If not, she’ll take the NCLEX certification exam next year and become a registered nurse after she graduates.</p><p>Despite the added stress that comes with working directly with COVID-19 patients, Falcone says that the past few months have only reaffirmed her decision to go into nursing.</p><p>“Obviously, there are those bad days and those bad moments where all you want to do is cry, like, ‘I feel so bad for these people,’” she said, “but then there are some patients that really voice — like, ‘Thank you so much for just sitting and talking to me, thank you for bringing me that ice water,’ that kind of thing. The little things that just make someone’s day that aren’t even medical. I just love helping those people. They’re scared, and I’m happy to be that person.</p><p>“I just kind of feel like I was called to do this.”</p>