URI College of Nursing staff, faculty members and students across all departments are dedicating themselves to helping during the COVID-19 health crisis we are all facing. Here, we highlight their work in their own words. Know someone helping out who should be recognized? Email their information to patrickluce@uri.edu.

My name is a Samantha Falkowski and I am currently in my second to last semester at URI, majoring in nursing and minoring in Spanish. I am currently working two frontline jobs while balancing the transition into online classes and clinicals, one as a patient care technician at South County Hospital in the Emergency Department, and the other as a customer service representative and cashier at Dave’s Marketplace in Coventry. 

I started working at South County Hospital a year ago, and it has been so crazy seeing all of the new safety protocols in place and adapting to these scary times, especially in a setting that is already always high-stress to begin with. I am very proud as a nursing student to be able to assist nurses and health care providers in the ED to continue to provide the best care and support. 

I have worked for Dave’s Marketplace for almost 6 years, and it is shocking seeing all the new changes implemented to help the safety of the employees and customers. Dave’s has installed spit guards, added senior shopping hours and reduced store hours since the start of the pandemic. 

I am proud to serve the state of Rhode Island in two aspects of an essential employee, one in the medical field and the other as a grocery store employee.