WINDSOR, ONT. -- A University of Windsor nursing professor has answered the call to help out in one of the worst hit areas of COVID-19.
Kate Kemplin is chief nursing officer and deputy director of the Ryan Larkin New York Presbyterian field hospital in New York City.
“I oversee about 120 nurses and clinical staff, excluding physicians and other prescriptive providers” says Kemplin.
Known as “the bubble”, the field hospital is a 220 bed COVID-19 facility at Columbia University’s athletic dome.
“From military medics who have left service and traditional registered nurses. These patients are just doing amazing,” says Kemplin.
She arrived in New York on April 8, and helped get the field hospital up and running in just six days.
“I think we worked about 18 hours a day for the next six days and we started taking patients on the 14th.”
Kemplin tells CTV Windsor patients are being sent home at a rapid pace.
“With so much holistic care, physical therapy, occupational therapy, one-on-one hands on nursing care, from non-traditional providers,” explains Kemplin.
This isn’t the first time the 40-year-old has responded to an emergency.
“I was fresh out of nursing school when 9-11 happened and I spent a month in New York with the fire department as their medical support, and I just felt really compelled to go to New York again for this,” Kemplin tells CTV News.
While her family remains at home in Kingsville, Kemplin isn’t sure when she’ll be able to rejoin them.
“The clinicians and clinical staff here in New York City, they need to recover and they need a break, so we’re here until we’ve reached that point.
