{"id":9554,"date":"2020-05-14T12:49:32","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T16:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/?p=9554"},"modified":"2020-05-15T08:08:58","modified_gmt":"2020-05-15T12:08:58","slug":"dawn-french-93-on-working-at-white-plains-hospital-during-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/news\/dawn-french-93-on-working-at-white-plains-hospital-during-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Dawn French \u201893 on Working at White Plains Hospital During COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019d asked Dawn French thirty years ago what she planned on doing with her career, she probably wouldn’t have told you working in a hospital in the midst of a global pandemic. After graduating from URI in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, French began her career working in TV news. When she got married and had her two daughters, she decided to take a break from television. It was then that, thanks to her networking skills, she discovered a position opening at White Plains Hospital in the city of White Plains, NY. \u201cI took a job as a community outreach and marketing coordinator at a time when the hospital only had three people in its communications department,” French says, “and I was one of the three. I worked my way up in the ranks again until I decided to take a break, but I stayed in touch with the CEO of White Plains Hospital during that time as I was getting my Master\u2019s of Public Health. One day a couple years ago, the CEO reached out and offered me a promotion. I\u2019ve now been in my position for about 10 years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Now Senior Vice President for Marketing, Communication and Community Relations at White Plains Hospital, French\u2019s extensive list of responsibilities include overseeing all forms of marketing for the hospital (including the hospital\u2019s social media accounts), as well as handling media relations, governmental affairs, and community outreach. While every day in such a job holds something different, no one, including French, could have foreseen the massive shift in daily life caused by the outbreak of COVID-19. With such proximity to New York City — the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. — Westchester County found itself in the crosshairs of a viral contagion. Starting with the first recorded case in New York on March 1, 2020, followed by another case recorded in White Plains\u2019 neighboring town of New Rochelle two days later, French began to pick up on signs of how distressing the outbreak was becoming to the staff of White Plains Hospital. As cases continue to rise two months later, French notes that the hospital and all its staff are feeling the pressure. \u201cThe days are pretty much nonstop,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m a member of the leadership team, so we meet every day to strategize and figure out communications. On March 6, one of our medical staff tested positive for COVID-19, and the leadership team sprung into action to make sure the community and staff were protected.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

French and her team worked to develop a hotline for members of the local community to call and ask questions about getting tested and screened for coronavirus before showing up to the hospital, thus exposing less people to the virus. She\u2019s worked to create signage and messages encouraging people to stop and call the hotline before deciding to go to the hospital, and her days are typically spent coordinating internal communications to convey important information to the hospital\u2019s staff. Despite all of this, however, French notes that her job has mostly been to provide a little brightness in the days of White Plains Hospital\u2019s clinical staff, who have spent countless hours working to combat COVID-19. \u201cWe help everybody to do a little exhale and notice the good things,” she says. “As of late April, we\u2019ve hit 500 patients who have been discharged. Whenever a patient was being discharged, we would have them put their name on a wall of butterflies. We put together a video montage of all the patients who have conquered COVID-19 and gone home, which we posted to social media, so everyone can see how the staff is making a difference and saving the world.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

French admits that the days are long and taxing, as her new normal consists of working six days a week, but she\u2019s adamant in crediting everyone\u2019s hard work and ability to rise to the challenge of our times. She also notes that, to this day, she relies on the skills she gained from studying journalism at URI to help her succeed in the workplace. \u201cI specialized in broadcast journalism,” she says, “and one thing I remember is learning to get to the message and telling the story as concise as possible. Coming from my background working in TV, I appreciate working on a deadline. We have news updates coming in every day, and every day we have to synthesize them. It\u2019s really the ability to take the same message and slice it in a specific way for each individual audience, which is something I first learned how to do at URI.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>

Journalism<\/h2>

At URI, you'll find multidisciplinary, hands-on learning, student-directed productions and publications, and state-of-the-art facilities.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

Explore<\/div><\/a><\/div>\n

Knowing that many do not work as close to the virus as she does, French urges people not to panic but to still understand the pandemic\u2019s gravity. \u201cI think it\u2019s really important for people to know that this is real,\u201d she advises. \u201cI hear all the time from family and friends that people don\u2019t believe it\u2019s real, but it\u2019s real, it\u2019s serious, and it\u2019s a scary virus. Once we get out of this, and everyone returns to their new normal, we have to remain vigilant and stay aware until a vaccine is developed.\u201d While the version of herself from 1993 would have never imagined she\u2019d be where she is now, French firmly believes that she couldn\u2019t imagine not<\/em> working in healthcare communications. \u201cI find my work super gratifying because everything is so different,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m not saving lives in any way, but the work is important in supporting those who do. We really make a difference in the marketing and communications department.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

~Written by Chase Hoffman, Writing & Rhetoric and Anthropology Double Major, URI Class of 2020<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dawn French \u201893, a graduate of our journalism program, now works as Senior Vice President for Marketing, Communication and Community Relations at White Plains Hospital in White Plains, NY. “We have news updates coming in every day,” she says of her work during the COVID-19 pandemic, “and every day we have to synthesize them. It\u2019s really the ability to take the same message and slice it in a specific way for each individual audience, which is something I first learned how to do at URI.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1089,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[79],"class_list":["post-9554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-journalism"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1089"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9554"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9591,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9554\/revisions\/9591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/artsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}