Editor’s note: COVID’s Effect is an ongoing series of interviews with community members whose lives have been upended as a result of the pandemic. This is the first profile in that series.

On a slightly less-than-average day in March 2020, Nurse Justine Franko, of Rutland High School, was in her office preparing herself and her substitute nurse for a short leave from in-person learning.

Rutland High School Nurse Justine Franko takes a selfie in her office recently.
*Photo by Justine Franko*

COVID-19 had reached Vermont. In one fell swoop, with a directive from Gov. Phil Scott, schools around the state were shut down and kids were home.

As Franko gathered her things, she passed an N95 mask to her substitute, recommending wearing it in grocery stores and other public places.

This wouldn’t last long, Franko said she remembers thinking.

“I remember thinking to myself, ‘OK, so we’ll probably be closed for about two weeks. So, what do I need for the next two weeks?’” recalled Franko. “It was really, we thought, two weeks that we were talking about.”

Franko started at Rutland High School in 2019, her first job as a school nurse, after leaving her previous field as an advanced practice registered nurse and certified nurse midwife.

A school job would leave summers and holidays for her to spend with her 4-year-old daughter — something she had not had the luxury of before.

“It gave me a good taste of what school nursing was like before the pandemic,” Franko said. “And then everything changed.”

Now, as pandemic area coordinator for the Rutland City Public Schools, Franko is up at 5:30 a.m. answering COVID emails as she eats breakfast. She watches the news for pandemic updates before driving to school to meet a line of students waiting for medication and tests. As the other Rutland High School nurse, Caitlin Sartor, handles the day-to-day work, Franko is in her office on the phone collecting who’s positive, who’s not, reaching out to those who need to know, and giving advice to those who are unsure, angry or scared.

“Every minute of the day, we are basically, at this point, managing COVID,” Franko said. “It used to be that we would work until 10 p.m. on cases, but I think we just realized you have to put your family in there. We just cannot keep up the pace.”

On the Tuesday after Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Rutland area schools had a minimum of 120 positive cases. Franko compared it to an iceberg — much more under the surface than meets the eye when it comes to positive cases.

“It’s the contacting, it’s who’s involved. What bus were they on? What do we need to worry about? Who’s immuno-compromised? I mean, there’s so much that goes on with just one case. Multiply that by 120,” Franko said.

And it’s not just the work that weighs on Franko and her nurses, it’s the misunderstandings that they often face from the public. As a mother of a young child, she also deals with the constant worry of exposure.

“We’re all in this together. Parents really need to know that I understand what they’re going through. Their fears and their anger,” Franko said. “(They’re) trying to keep their kids safe, and that’s what we really all want.”

Despite the struggles that COVID-19 has brought, Franko says she feels lucky to be in the position she is. Not only has her nursing staff at the schools become a tighter and stronger unit, but her work speaking with nearly every member of the school system has made her feel closer to her community.

Above all, she said she hopes people recognize the hard work that all health care professionals are putting in right now.

“I will say this, I give it everything that I have. I don’t hold back from giving advice and teaching (people), and helping them through,” Franko said. “I just want people to know that I, and we, are doing our absolute best and no decision is made without really thinking about what is best for the kids.”

Original story can be found at the Rutland Herald